2015 - New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.

Transcription

Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 1
January 14th Meeting:
Mitchell Portnoy: “Malachite:
Ornamental and Collectible”
Everyone likes malachite. Indeed, its
bright, obvious green color has attracted
man and woman since the Stone Age!
This one-hour, lavishly illustrated,
multimedia presentation covers the
following topics about malachite:
Mineralogy; Worldwide Localities; In
Histo r y; C o llecto r’s Cavalcad e;
Associations & Pseudomorphs; Decor &
Objects of Beauty; Jewelry, & Lapidary,
of Course!; Simulants; & etc.
It is suggested that members bring in
their favorite malachite specimens or
objects from their collections for a quick
show-and-tell afterwards.
New! Chinese Auction!
A selection of malachite specimens
and objects will be offered at a “Chinese
Auction” at this meeting. (See page 2 for
a description of this event and page 7 for
a roster of items to be offered.)
Email Special Attachment
All members who receive this
Bulletin through email also received a
special attachment this month entitled
“The Story of a Malachite Vase”.
Send in Your 2015 Club Dues
It is time to send in your 2015 club membership dues! All
memberships run from January 1 to December 31 of
each year (with a few exceptions).If your mailing label
says “2014", you owe your 2015 dues. Please take
the time now to mail in your dues in order to prevent
uninterrupted delivery of your bulletin. A handy form
appears on page 12. Dues are $25 for individual, $35 for
family. Mail to: Membership Coordinator, N.Y.
Mineralogical Club, P.O. Box 77, Planetarium Station,
NYC, NY 10024-0077.
Ë New York City, New York Ë Incorporated 1937
Celebrating the International Year of Light
January 2015
2015 Will Be Another EventFilled Year for the NYMC
By Mitch Portnoy
The new year 2015 has been
designated the International Year of
Light by the United Nations. As you
probably know, light
often is paired
metaphorically with
knowledge.
With that in
mind, let me shed
some light on my
knowledge of what
the NYMC has in
store for its members
for the year 2015.
The
year’s
meeting lecture
series is almost fully
populated and will
feature speakers, both
familiar and new, giving presentations on
a broad range of mineralogical, geological,
gemological and lapidary subjects.
One highlight, which is scheduled for
later in the year, will undoubtedly be the
November meeting with Howard Heitner
giving a talk about fluorescence in tandem
with Dick Bostwick providing a
demonstration on the same topic.
Charles Merguerian will regale us at
the year’s gala banquet, whose theme will
be garnet, with a talk about the geology
and mineralogy of the Second Avenue
Subway. The popular silent auction, held
before the dinner, will have a garnet
section to underscore the banquet’s theme.
And speaking of auctions, I can
already tell you that the lot selection for
the Annual Benefit Auction (voice) in
June will not be a disappointment! E
already have a wide range of minerals,
gems, books, etc. of a very high quality!
The best material we have so far has
all come from the dealer donations at the
recent Fall 2014 NYC Gem & Mineral
Show. There is every reason to expect that
the dealers at the upcoming Spring 2015
NYC Mineral & Gem Show in March.
And speaking of donations, I have
some good news. The Annual Special
Sale (January) will indeed be taking place
as a result of the immense generosity of
Nik Nikiforou (Globe Minerals). See Club
Calendar on page 15
for details or call me
if you have any
questions.
Although not yet
scheduled, we do
hope to have another
Open
House
sometime during the
summer months. This
social affair (with
eating & drinking) has
been very popular and
if you would like to
host this event in
2015, please let me
know. You will be glad you did!
I hope to see you at many of these
events and activities and you can see how
valuable a membership in the NYMC
really is. And remember, ideas and
suggestions are ALWAYS welcome!
Issue Highlights
President’s Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Yazzie Exhibition. 3
Rare Twinned Garnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Science Is Not a Popularity Contest. . 4
Electrons’ Split ‘Personalities'. . . . . . 5
Oldest Life?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The 100: Three Oxides. . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chinese Auction Malachite. . . . . . . . 7
Topics in Gemology: Chocolate.. . . . 8
NASA May Lasso Asteroid. . . . . . . . 8
Earth’s Biggest Crater. . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Russian Malachite Mine. . . . . . . . . . 10
Fake Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Membership Renewal Form. . . . . 12
Oldest Rocks & Life.. . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Hidden Ocean!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Atomic Man!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Club & Show Calendars. . . . . . . . . . 15
2
President’s Message
By Mitch Portnoy
Happy New Year to Everyone!
Believe it or not, this is the beginning
of my 20th year as bulletin editor – the first
one that I produced for the Club was in
January of 1996.
A new NYMC postcard will be
distributed at the January meeting and new
sets of note cards, in honor of the
International Year of Light and the 100th
Anniversary of General Relativity (Pop
Einstein), will be available.
Malachite (Chinese) Auction
At January’s meeting, the NYMC is
holding its First (?) Annual Chinese
Auction! (See box, right, for an explanation
of what this is if you don’t already know.)
The items offered will be all be related in
some way to the evening’s lecture about
malachite. Tickets will be sold prior to the
auction [25 tickets for $5.00]. All proceeds
go to the NYMC treasury. Table set-up and
item layout will begin early at about 5:00
PM, ticket sales will start shortly thereafter.
The results will be announced before the
lecture begins (in place of the regular
raffle).
Good news! We WILL have a Special
Sale to benefit the NYMC thanks to the
overwhelming generosity of Nik Nikiforou
(Globe Minerals). See calendar on page 15
for info or call me for details.
Receive Your Bulletin Electronically!
Send me an email asap! – Mitch
Club Meeting Minutes for
December 10, 2014
January 2015
Collection, housed in the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C., boasts the 45.5 deep blue
Hope diamond, the turquoise and diamond
diadem and diamond necklace of Empress MarieLouise (Napoleon’s 2nd wife), emerald/diamond
Spanish Inquisition Necklace, and the 127 ct
octagonal-cut Portuguese diamond. Iran houses an
immense treasure trove of royal jewels safely
tucked away in the basement of the Central Bank
in Tehran, including the Peacock Throne, a gemencrusted globe of the world, and the crowns of
the late Shah Pahlavi and Empress Farah.
By Vivien Gornitz, Secretary
Attendance: 35 (Snow!)
President Mitch Portnoy presided.
Announcements:
After the raffle, Mitch reminded us that the
2014 IYCr was coming to an end while the
2015 IYL was soon starting as well as the
100th Anniversary of Relativity.
The last Crystallography game was played
after the historic occurrences for the day
4" Trim Saw available (hardly used)
and month were shown.
Contact Ruth Brodsky: [email protected]
Attendees were reminded what was
available for sale (including floaty pens!),
and what was free.
Mitch encouraged people to pay their 2015 Members in the News
Club dues and to get their 2015 Branko Deljanin will present New
Generation of Natural Looking CVD-Grown
membership card if they already have.
Diamonds - How to Separate Them from
Vivien Gornitz highlighted two exhibits
Natural Diamonds in a Few Steps! (in both
currently running in NYC, one about
a lecture and workshop) at The National
jewelry at the Museum of the American
Association of Jewelry Appraisers (NAJA)
Indian and another at the Met about (Asian)
43rd Annual Winter ACE© It Education
Indian jewelry.
Conference to be held in Tucson, Arizona,
Naomi Sarna was congratulated for having
from February 1-2, 2015.
the first public viewing of her jewelry and

Dr. Oliver Sacks had a piece about the
gemstone carvings.
ginkgo tree and its unusual leaves in The
Mitch provided a overview of upcoming
New Yorker that appeared on newsstands
NYMC meetings and events.
November 17, 2014.
If you would like to participate in next month’s
Photographs from Melissa Fleming’s Sea
“Show and Tell” please let me know so I can put you
Change series are included in the exhibition,
on the program list! – Mitch
“Modern Alchemy: Experiments in
Special Lecture: John Sanfaçon:
Photography” at the Heckscher Museum of
Art. She was also interviewed for the
“Worldwide Crown Jewels”
December issue of SciArt in America.
John Sanfaçon treated Club members to a
dazzling whirlwind tour of the world’s gem
treasures from antiquity to the present. Starting Welcome New Members!
with intricately carved Roman agate, onyx, and Sharon Fitzpatrick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
sardonyx intaglios and cameos, he quickly
jumped to medieval royal crowns generously
What is a Chinese Auction?
paved with cabochons of Ceylon sapphires,
A Chinese auction is a combination of a raffle
rubies, amethysts, and natural pearls. Some
and an auction that is typically featured at benefit
medieval highlights include the crowns of
events.
Charlemagne and of St. Wenceslas of Bohemia
The difference between a raffle and a Chinese
and a lavishly bejeweled statue of St. George
auction is that in a raffle with multiple prizes, there
slaying the dragon.
is one “hat” from which names are drawn, but in a
By Renaissance times, gem-cutters began to
Chinese auction each prize has its own “hat” (or a
master the art of faceting, greatly improving the
bowl). This allows ticket buyers to choose which
prize to focus on, as opposed to having a first,
brilliance and fire of diamonds. Emeralds from
second, third, etc. prize.
Colombia found their way into the royal courts
In a Chinese auction, bidders are not
of Europe and Mogul India, while Golconda
prospective buyers (as in a conventional voice
diamonds from India traveled west to Europe.
auction). Instead, they buy tickets, which are
Some outstanding later historical treasures
chances to win items. The tickets themselves are
include the rare 41 ct Dresden Green diamond
often inexpensive and bidders may buy hundreds of
(1743), the elaborate sapphire and diamond
these tickets. Bidders buy as many tickets as they
parure of Marie Antoinette, the Crown of St.
like, and bid them on any item(s) they want by
placing one or more ticket in the “hat” beside the
Stephen of Hungary (a national treasure safely
item(s) they are trying to win. At the conclusion of
hidden from the Nazis during WWII), and
bidding, one winning ticket is drawn from the “hat”
Catherine the Great’s crown topped by a 399 ct
beside each item, and the item is given to the owner
red spinel!
of that ticket.
More recent royal treasures include the
A bidder may increase the chance of winning
British crown jewels, highlighted by the
by buying and bidding more tickets on a specific
Imperial State Crown with its 317 ct Cullinan II
item. Although there is generally no limit to the
diamond, the Royal Scepter with the 550
number of tickets a given individual may bid on a
specific item, the chance of winning depends on the
Cullinan I diamond, and the Queen Mother’s
total number of tickets bid by all individuals.
109 ct Koh-i-noor diamond and large “ruby”
spinel bedecked crown. The U.S. National Gem
January 2015
3
The World of Minerals
The World of Minerals is a monthly column written by Dr. Vivien Gornitz on timely and interesting topics related
to geology, gemology, mineralogy, mineral history, etc.
Glittering World: Navajo Jewelry of the Yazzie Family
National Museum of the American Indian
November 13, 2014 – January 11, 2015
Glittering World, a dazzling exhibition of some of the finest
contemporary Navajo jewelry by the Yazzie family, evokes the
vivid hues of southwestern sunsets and red rock mesas translated
into colorful gems. The featured artists, Lee, Raymond, and
Mary Marie Yazzie grew up in a large Navajo family near
Gallup, New Mexico. Both parents were silversmiths, as are
many of their siblings. Named after an episode from an ancient
myth, the exhibit is imbued with traditional Navajo values
expressed in contemporary form—beauty, harmony, balance,
attention to detail, striving for perfection, and a deep sense of
place.
Largely self-taught, Lee originally wanted to pursue a
different career, but health issues forced him to drop out of
college and he subsequently turned to silversmithing. His pieces
are characterized by use of
the highest grade gem
tu rq uoise, coral, an d
elaborate silver-work. He
em p lo y s t h e o v erlay
technique, embellished with
mathematically precise
incised lines, curved, and
stepped designs. Lee, like
his brother Raymond, has
also perfected the art of
stone inlay. A crowing
artistic and technical
masterpiece is a curved corncob cuff bracelet covered with
hundreds of small dark blue Bisbee and Royal Web turquoise,
lapis lazuli, coral and opal kernels entirely surrounding the
piece.
Raymond specializes in stone inlay, carefully juxtaposing
contrasting colors to form intricate abstract patterns, often
incorporating the traditional sunface design. He slowly
deliberates over the exact placement and fit of the stones to
achieve a pleasing balance. The seamless joining of multiple
stones on one bracelet gives the impression of one continuous
curved piece of spider web turquoise.
Their sister, Mary Marie creates Navajo “pearls”—round
silver beads, as well as turquoise bead necklaces and traditional
silver jewelry. Other family members are also fine silversmiths.
The Yazzies seek perfection in their work, employing the
top grade gemstone. Their pieces feature untreated, natural
turquoise from now-closed southwestern mines, such as Lander
Blue, Lone Mountain, Bisbee, and Morenci, deep red
Mediterranean coral, Afghani lapis lazuli, Australian opal, and
sugilite. Some rings and bracelets are set in 14 and 18 carat gold.
In a visual feast for the eye, Glittering World highlights the
exquisite jewelry of the talented Yazzie family, while at the
same time immersing the viewer in a culture that seeks harmony,
values quality, and respects family and the land. The exhibition
is definitely worth a trip to lower Manhattan.
From left: Raymond C Yazzie, Mary Marie Yazzie, and Lee A Yazzie in front of their
grandparents’ hogan (traditional hut), originally built in the 1890s.
Bracelet, Raymond C. Yazzie, 2005. Silver inlaid with coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli,
14-karat gold accents. 2 3/8 x 1 in.
Blessings bracelet, Raymond C. Yazzie, 2002–3. Height, 1½ in.
4
A Rare Twinned Garnet Crystal
By Russ Behnke
I recently received a strange crystal from Merelani,
Tanzania. It shows an interesting set of triangular, radial crystal
faces, arranged in alternating re-entrant angles, with rough
striations perpendicular to the intersections of the faces. The
mineral itself has a vitreous luster, reddish-maroon color, is
slightly translucent and has a hardness of 7. It is 4 cm (1.6
inches) across. These properties narrowed the possible mineral
species to only a few, with garnet a prime suspect, despite the
weird crystal habit. An analysis using Raman spectroscopy,
which uniquely identifies crystalline solids, proved it to be
garnet with a composition intermediate between pyrope
[Mg3Al2(SiO4)3] and almandine [Fe 3Al 2(SiO 4) 3]. Garnet crystals
are extremely common, but this was unlike any I had ever seen
in decades of collecting and dealing minerals. The strange
symmetry and re-entrant angles of this crystal strongly suggested
that is a twin, but does garnet form twins? If so, they must be
rare for me to have never seen one.
January 2015
crystal form occurring by chance (not twinning) is less than one
in 1.1 trillion. This is 2 to the 40th power and is derived from
there being 19 faces, all pointing towards the center. All of these
19 faces have striations perpendicular to the radius. And the
main (highest) points are 120 degrees apart. All of these 40
factors agree with the crystal drawings. Just giving each factor
a 50% probability each feature conforming to the twinning
features seen gives us an odds against chance of 1.1 trillion to
one.
Left: Goldschmidt's Figure 80. Right: Heddle's Figure 4.
Source: Chip ‘n’ Pick, Newsletter of the Lapidary and Mineral
Society of Central Connecticut, March/April 2014.
Science Is Not a Popularity Contest
By John Friedman
Face on and side view of the strange garnet (Russ Behnke photos).
After some research, I indeed found that garnet crystal
twinning does occur and that it is very rarely seen. A look in
Victor Goldschmidt's classic Atlas der Krystallformen (Atlas of
Crystal Forms) published in 1913-1925 (and available at
mindat.org) showed the many usual familiar untwinned
dodecahedral and trapezohedral forms, among others. But his
Figure 80 (Band 4, Tafel 60) shows a strange one that matches
my crystal almost exactly (the drawings are idealized so a
perfect match is never expected). Goldschmidt referenced the
source for this drawing as Heddle's 1901 Mineralogy of
Scotland, where a similar crystal drawing does appear on Plate
LXIII (Figure 4), though it does not show the striations on the
faces that the Goldschmidt version does, and is not
“see-through” either. In any case, it is clearly the same and is an
interpenetration twin of two dodecahedrons. This crystal was
found in the Dalnabo limestone quarry, Glengairn in
Aberdeenshire and is the essonite variety of grossular garnet.
Much smaller twins were described in 1973 by Peter
Lessing and Richard Standish in an American Mineralogist
article (volume 58, pages 840-842) on zoned garnet from
Crested Butte, Colorado. Though they were only seen in a thin
section, the twinning can be proved this way because it will
show the re-entrant angles visible on the outside actually
continue into the crystal, and are not just chance contacting. I
would never cut open this rare crystal, but the chances of this
The interesting thing about science is that it is not about
public opinion or even popular consensus. Scientific discoveries,
even those that are unpopular, have a history of being borne out
over time.
A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of
some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the
scientific method and repeatedly confirmed through observation
and experimentation. Theories can be modified as more
information comes to light, and thus is scientific knowledge
advanced.
Sometimes the new explanations are greeted with
skepticism, and sometimes with outright hostility. Those
scientific theories that either challenge (or are seen to threaten)
the status quo, or entrenched political and power structures often
find themselves attacked by those entities because they threaten
them.
The idea that tiny, invisible things in the air and water were
causing illnesses was not generally accepted until after Louis
Pasteur developed germ theory in 1861. Some physicians did not
make it a practice to wash their hands between patients and even
mocked the theory and refused to do so. But those early adopters
were proven right, and when London physician John Snow’s
research showing clusters of cholera cases during the epidemic
of 1854 resulted in the decision to remove the handle of the
water pump that was the source of the contamination, even
people who did not believe in or understand germ theory
benefited.
When Copernicus first presented the heliocentric model of
planetary motion and placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, in the
center, it actually was not seen as particularly threatening. But
eventually, as others refined his work and sought to explain how
January 2015
it was not in conflict with church doctrine, the Catholic Church
was less sanguine. By Galileo’s time the Inquisition had declared
heliocentrism to be formally heretical, which led to his house
arrest and excommunication.
5
Electrons’ Split ‘Personalities’ Help Solve
Superconductor Mystery
By Jesse Emspak
Electrons — the negatively charged particles around atoms —
have split “personalities,” and act one way or the other depending
on how many of them are around, new research suggests.
A superconductor like the one used in recent research that showed
electrons may have “split personalities” that help explain their strange
properties. | Lawrence Berkeley National Library via Getty Images
Galileo before members of the Holy Office in the Vatican in 1633.
Listening to people claim that “science can’t be trusted”
reminds me increasingly of O. J. Simpson lawyers’ argument
that the more reasonable explanation for the preponderance of
evidence against their client was that the evidence had to have
been planted or otherwise rigged. Since they could not make a
credible case against the DNA being his, the only thing left was
to come up with another explanation for why it was there.
The argument that I find most specious and intellectually
suspect is that the 97 percent of climate scientists who support
the idea that climate change is linked to the contaminants we’ve
been putting into the air in massive quantities since the Industrial
Revolution have been compromised by money, while the tiny
minority (often those paid by the polluters) remain intellectually
pure.
Another argument that falls flat is the concept of demanding
a level of predictive accuracy. Just as evolution cannot predict
what the next successful adaptations will be with certainty,
psychiatry cannot accurately identify people who will become
serial killers and those who will become philanthropists.
Scientists must acknowledge a portion of the blame for this
when they make declarative and firm statements – or allow (or
encourage) the media to present their research in a way that
plays directly into the hands of those who would impeach their
research, such as the recent NASA statement that ice melting in
West Antarctica appears unstoppable. The caveat “appears” does
not resonate as strongly or grab as much attention as the word
“unstoppable” and phrases like “past the point of no return,” so
the cost of the attention-grabbing headline is the loss of
credibility.
In the end, people will not decide whether the evidence for
climate change fits or not. History tells us that the truth will win
out. In the meantime, I continue to wonder why, even if one
chooses to disregard global climate change, people are not
moved to action at least by the other known ill effects (lung
diseases, asthma, etc.) that are unquestioned consequences of air
pollution.
That ought to be enough of a reason to act.
The finding could help to solve a long-standing mystery about
electrical currents in superconductors, which carry such current
with no energy loss. Physicists have long wondered why electrons
sometimes move freely as superconducting materials cool and
other times jam up electrical flow.
The researchers focused on so-called high-temperature
superconductors, or those materials that conduct electricity at
temperatures above supercold, or absolute zero (minus 459.67º
Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15º Celsius). They used an electron
microscope to examine one class of high-temperature
superconductors based on cuprates, orcopper and oxygen
compounds. Cuprates are usually insulators (meaning they don’t
conduct electricity) but when cooled to about 160º Kelvin (minus
171º F, or minus 113º C) and mixed with a oxygen, amounting to
a few atoms scattered among several cuprate molecules, they turn
into superconductors, the team from Brookhaven National
Laboratory found.
Stuck Electrons
The researchers found that doping the cuprates with oxygen
initially caused some of the electrons to freeze in place — a
condition called “stripes.” The stripes interfered with the
superconductivity, because the stuck electrons only allowed the
free ones to move in certain directions.
Adding enough oxygen to the cuprates seemed to make a big
difference, as the cuprates acted as semiconductors again, said
study researcher J.C. Séamus Davis, a senior physicist at
Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and
director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Emergent
Superconductivity.
The reason this seems to work has to do with why
superconductivity happens. Usually, metals conduct electricity
because the atoms have incomplete outer electron shells. Copper,
for instance, has a single electron in its outer shell, even though
that shell has enough space for eight electrons. That extra space
allows the electrons to act as though they are in a free-floating sea.
Attaching a battery imposes an electric field on the electrons,
which all get attracted toward the positive side of the field. The
battery also supplies more electrons, which move like a conga line
along the wire. There’s resistance, though, because the electrons
also bounce around randomly.
If a metal is cooled enough, though, the electrons form
so-called Cooper pairs. Electrons are negatively charged, so they
attract the positively charged particles, or ions, in the metal,
6
leaving a slightly denser positive charge as they move. That
positive charge attracts other free electrons, resulting in a weakly
bound pair — one behind the other.
Quantum-mechanical rules allow them to sail through the
copper without interference. But it doesn’t work when the
temperature is too high, because the pairs break up when the
electrons are jostled around.
A process called doping — in which chemicals are applied to
a metal or other substance — adds “holes,” or spaces of positive
charge where electrons are absent, to the material. The result is that
the electrons in the cuprates have more room to move, and that’s
why, at cold temperatures, the stuck electrons — or “stripes” —
disappear.
Making Superconductors
While the phenomenon may sound esoteric, it’s an important
step in understanding how to make superconducting materials,
Davis said. “There were dozens of competing explanations. The
result of our experiment showed it was a simple explanation,”
Davis said.
There is still a lot of work to do on raising superconductor
temperatures. The Brookhaven team’s experiment was done at 4º
Kelvin, or about minus 450º F (minus 268º C) — well below the
theoretical limit. More experiments will have to be done with
doped cuprates at higher temperatures. That said, Davis notes that
if a superconductor could work at the temperature of liquid
nitrogen, as opposed to liquid helium, that would reduce the costs
a lot.
Also, knowing that “stripes” need to be prevented from
forming can guide engineers and scientists in choosing what
substances to focus on and how to boost the temperature of
superconductors even further. “Once the materials scientists know
what the objective is, they can work toward that,” Davis said.
Even with this new finding, superconductors still hold
mysteries. Although Davis’ group has found a way to mitigate the
striping phenomenon, much of the underlying mechanism is still
unclear.
Yang He, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, is
among a group of scientists who also study superconductivity. He
said in their findings, a phase where electrons are partially
conducting and partially insulating — called the pseudogap —
seems to evolve smoothly no matter what the electrons in the
material are doing. In addition, the pseudogap phase electrons
seem to participate in superconductivity as well. “Somehow, the
electrons are doing two things,” he said.
Source: LiveScience.com |Posted: 05/16/2014
Traces of Some of the ‘Oldest Life’ on Earth
May Not Have Biological Origin after All
By Tia Ghose
What were thought to be some of the oldest traces of life on
Earth may not have been caused by life at all, new research
suggests.
The fossils, tiny tubules etched into ancient rocks in South
Africa, were initially thought to be formed by ancient bacteria
boring through volcanic glass in the seafloor — a process called
bioalteration — during the Archean Eon, about 3.4 billion years
ago.
But the new study, published yesterday (May 26) in the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
suggests these tiny tunnels were actually formed by the cooling of
the volcanic rock nearby, just 2.9 billion years ago.
“Our new data challenges this complex ‘bioalteration model’
proposed to have occurred in the Archean pillow lava rims,” study
January 2015
co-author Eugene Grosch, an earth scientist at the University of
Norway, wrote in an email to Live Science.
Typical titanite microtexture in the pillow lavas found at the Barbertone
Greenstone belt in South Africa. | Eugene Grosch
Traces of Life
Several fossils have vied for the title of Earth’s oldest life.
Geologists thought rippling, wavy textures imprinted into rocks in
the Dresser Formation in western Australia may have been formed
by microbial mats about 3.4 billion years ago. At another
formation in western Australia known as Strelley Pool, domelike
structures called stromatolites may also have been formed by
microbes nearly 3.5 billion years ago.
And in 2004, researchers digging at the Barberton Greenstone
Belt in South Africa identified the newly analyzed microscopic
filament structures, made of a mineral called titanite, that they
believed were formed by ancient microbes in oceanic crust about
3.49 billion years ago.
But finding the signature of tiny microbes that lived billions
of years ago is extraordinarily difficult, and geologists hotly debate
which of these specimens is truly the earliest hint of life on Earth.
Mysterious Formation
Grosch and his colleague Nicola McLoughlin, an earth
scientist at the University of Norway, weren’t convinced that the
Barberton textures were formed by ancient microbes. To test that
idea, the team drilled 590 feet (180 meters) into the rock where the
textures were found.
They measured hundreds of the textures throughout the core
and analyzed their size and shape distribution. The filaments had
huge diameters and a very large size distribution compared with
those of the miniscule tunnels formed by microbes in oceanic crust
today, Grosch said.
The team also used the decay of uranium and lead isotopes
(elements with the same number of protons but a different number
of neutrons) to estimate the age of the titanite. (Because these
elements decay at different rates, the ratio of the two can reveal the
age of the rock.)
Not Life?
The tiny trace fossils were formed between 2.9 billion and 2.8
billion years ago, so they’re about 650 million years younger than
the formation as a whole.
The team also used a mathematical model of the cooling
conditions in nearby pillow lava and found that the titanite
structures were likely formed by the prevailing conditions in the
cooling rock at that time.
About 2.9 billion years ago, magma intruded into the even
more ancient rock and heated it up, forming the titanite structures
as it cooled, the team thinks.
These findings discount the notion that the trace fossils were
formed by primitive microbes at the dawn of life on Earth, the
researchers argue.
“These textures are not biological or related to microbial
activity,” Grosch said.
Source: LiveScience.com May 28, 2014
January 2015
7
Collector’s Series – “The 100"
The 100 is a monthly feature of interest to mineral collectors written by Bill Shelton, based upon his many years of
experience as a mineral collector, educator, author, appraiser, philanthropist and dealer. Comments as well as suggestions
for new topics are most welcome. Contact him at [email protected].
Three Oxides: Rutile, Hematite, Ilmenite
An astute collector will know that each of these three oxides
can occur in black crystals but rutile will probably look different
from hematite and ilmenite. Rutile is rarely an ore but hematite
is the major iron ore worldwide while ilmenite is a major
titanium ore. Fine crystals do form for all three species. Rutile is
often red and hematite will exhibit a distinct reddish streak.
Chemically, hematite is ordinarily nearly pure while ilmenite
and rutile normally contain more than trace quantities of
elements not seen in their ideal formulae.
A wish list for great specimens will vary with personal taste
but who wouldn’t like a fine hematite from Congonas, Brazil, an
ilmenite from Bancroft (Canada) alongside a rutile from Graves
Mountain, Georgia. There are a lot of other localities and a wide
variety of specimens available but type locality material, from
the Miask area (Russia) will be the only one you can find since
hematite and rutile have
no known type localities
(see Encyclopedia of
Mineral Names).
New York produced
n ice s p e c i m e n s o f
crystalline hematite from
Chubb Lake some years
ago. Connecticut very
recently yielded fine
Hematite from Chubb Lake, NY
ilmenites from the classic
area around Washington in Litchfield County. Chester County,
Pennsylvania once produced a lot of decent rutile crystals. So,
our general area can be a good source for all of these minerals.
The reddish sedimentary rocks (i.e. Triassic sandstones) are
colored by hematite as are innumerable rock units worldwide.
Quartzite, Arizona has been a source for great hematites with
quartz; Graves Mountain is a premier U.S. locality for rutile as
is the Champion mine (California); Iron Mountain (Wyoming)
is a good U.S. ilmenite source.
I generally cover gems and fluorescence for the “100” but
here we find a trio lacking in both respects. However, rutile as
included material in
quartz, often with
hematite is so common
and well-known that I
think we cannot
exclude it. Venus
hairstone is a
gemological term for
rutilated quartz. Stars
and clusters with a
pattern have been
known to bring prices
I’d call fanciful. On
Rutile from Graves Mountain, Georgia
occasion, a fine sample
of rutilated quartz has been found in Vermont. Microscopic
rutile, when oriented in other minerals like quartz and corundum
will produce so-called star stones like the Delong Star Ruby in
the AMNH gem collection. It was sold for about $20,000 in
1937 and ransomed following its theft for $25,000 many years
ago – it remains the second finest star ruby known to date.
Synthetic rutile can be produced in nearly colorless form
very different from any known to occur in nature. When faceted,
the stones are noted to have
a high index of refraction
and dispersion. Once sold
under trade names like
Titania, they resemble
diamond somewhat.
Currently, I see very little
of this material offered for
sale.
The three oxides can
o c c u r t o ge t h e r a n d
occasional fine specimens
may be the result. One of
Ilmenite from Wyoming
my favorites is the hematite
rose from Switzerland with oriented rutile on the surface. If you
pay attention to so-called Alpine deposits anywhere in the world,
you will find beautiful examples of all three species that would
be a wonderful addition for most any collection. When rutile is
oriented on a hematite core, we can get a beautiful mineral
specimen reminding the viewer of a starburst. They are similarly
known to occur within quartz, especially from Brazil.
Other unusual specimens include botryoidal hematite – we
find them all over the world but the classic English piece would
be my first choice. Iridescent hematite, notably from Elba, can
yield a very nice cabinet specimen. Martite, a varietal name,
refers to hematite after magnetite – they come from Nova Scotia,
Mexico and elsewhere. A local unusual item is hematite
exhibiting rhombohedral parting from Franklin, New Jersey.
What about locality data? According to mindat.org, I find
hematite has 12,333 localities while ilmenite has 3,890 and rutile
has 4,503 localities.
Chinese Auction Malachite Offerings
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Velvet Malachite Miniature from Congo
Small Malachite Egg
Medium Malachite Egg
Large Malachite Egg
Malachite Thumbnail from Nevada
Malachite Thumbnail from Maryland
(8) Button-Size Cabochons
Small Carved Malachite Dish
Larger Carved Malachite Dish
(2) Small Malachite Specimens from Bisbee, Arizona
Velvet Malachite from Mexico
Large Tumbled Malachite
Small Malachite Pendant
Malachite & Azurite Crystals from Tsumeb
Small Polished Malachite from Zaire (Congo)
Large Malachite on Matrix from Mexico
And 10 more!
8
January 2015
Topics in Gemology
Topics in Gemology is a monthly column written by Diana Jarrett, GG, RMV, based on gemological questions posed to
her over the years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at dianajarrett.com.
Chocolate Schmocolate, Let’s Try Sherry
It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time not that long ago,
when it was very difficult to sell brown diamonds. ‘Brownies’ in all
saturations and tones were relatively available, but were seen as
inferior to the coveted colorless or ‘white’ diamond. By all counts
brown diamonds are the most common of fancy colored diamonds.
And as with any natural occurrence, they are not recent
discoveries. The largest cut natural fancy brown is the Golden
Jubilee, weighing in at a hefty 546.67 carats was discovered in
1985. For a diamond, that’s pretty recent, but it took another
decade before delectable brand names for brownies penetrated the
market and became household terms.
Champagne, cognac, and chocolate are some of the more
recognized monikers for these colorful sparklers.
NASA May Lasso Truck-Sized Asteroid That
Buzzed Earth Three Years Ago
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - NASA is considering
relocating a small asteroid that buzzed Earth three years ago into
a high orbit around the moon when it returns in 2024, officials
said on Thursday.
The asteroid, known as 2011 MD, is among nine candidates
on NASA’s potential relocation list. Once an asteroid is
robotically repositioned about 46,600 miles (75,000 km) above the
lunar surface, NASA wants to send astronauts to visit it and
collect samples. The initiative is intended to test technologies and
equipment needed for an eventual human expedition to Mars.
This image of asteroid 2011 MD was taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in
Feb. 2014, over a period of 20 hours. The long observation, taken in infrared light,
was needed to pick up the faint signature of the small asteroid (center of frame). |
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Northern Arizona University/SAO
Sherry Zircon, 7.20 Carats. Photo Courtesy Dyer.
But, gem lovers are prone to overlook another highly dramatic
jewel that makes a big impression and may also be discovered in
tints with more nuance of color in the brown family than diamonds:
the natural zircon. Its sophisticated color palette makes collectors
squeal and designers effuse with creativity. Many zircons are
produced in autumnal hues and one such dazzler is sherry zircon.
Rich brown with a reddish back color, this stone is remarkable for
its vitreous to adamantine luster.
While it carries the visual punch of a diamond with these
attributes, the price per carat is certainly more appealing than its
fancy color diamond counterpart. It’s a glamorous and affordable
central stone for an engagement ring. You might be surprised to
learn just how appealing it is when you present this as an option to
your customer. Long gone are the days of mis-identification of
zircon for cubic zirconia, aren’t they? If you think your customer
many not understand the difference, you may want to make that
clear at the top of your presentation. Sherry, it’s not just for after
dinner anymore.
Newly completed surveys with NASA’s infrared Spitzer
space telescope show 2011 MD is about 20 feet (6 meters) in
diameter, roughly the size of a delivery truck.
“You might actually be able to put this asteroid into your
garage at home,” astronomer David Trilling, with Northern
Arizona University in Flagstaff, told reporters on a conference
call.
The asteroid, discovered in 2011, is about one-third as dense
as solid rock and has a mass of about 100 tons. Scientists suspect
it actually may be a pile of boulders, bound together by gravity
and other forces. Or, it could be one massive boulder surrounded
by smaller pebbles and dust. Either scenario is unexpected.
“Traditionally, people thought that small asteroids like 2011
MD are just single pieces of rock or single boulders floating in
space,” said Trilling, who co-authored a study on 2011 MD
published on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
NASA has found about 11,000 asteroids that orbit near Earth
and is adding about 100 asteroids per month to the list. So far,
nine asteroids are believed to be suitably positioned for a robotic
rendezvous and capture between about 2020 and 2024.
Another option is to pluck a boulder off a large asteroid and
reposition just that piece into the lunar orbit. Either initiative is
expected to cost about $1.25 billion, NASA said.
Also Thursday, NASA selected 18 asteroid mission concepts
and technology proposals for six-month study contracts totaling
$4.9 million. Winning companies include aerospace giants Boeing
and Lockheed Martin, and startups, such as Deep Space Industries
and Planetary Resources Development Corp, both of which are
developing businesses to mine asteroids.
Source: Reuters Posted: 06/19/2014
January 2015
Earth’s Oldest, Biggest Impact Crater Yields
New Secrets
By Becky Oskin
In the abraded heart of South Africa’s Vredefort impact crater lurk striking green-black
rocks, some of the only remnants of a magma sea that once filled the gaping crater.
| NASA
9
rare, magma-filled dikes. The dikes burrow through ancient crust
once buried 12 miles (20 km) deep in the Earth. Moser thinks
partially cooled magma leaked into crustal rocks that oozed in like
toothpaste to plug the crater, creating the layered foliation. (The
crust rose up like a dome — picture the slow-motion videos of a
raindrop hitting a bowl of water.)
A Rare Find
Moser published his discovery in Geology in 1997, and
immediately sparked a battle over whether the dikes, filled with
a rock called gabbronorite, were truly remains of Vredefort’s
impact melt. That battle continues today. Some researchers
objected because the magma had an unusual layered appearance
called foliation, common in altered rocks. Perhaps it was simply
another pseudotachylite, or part of the Earth’s original crust, the
critics said. Others suggested the young zircons could have
crystallized in pre-existing rocks from the impact’s heat.
Geologists say they’ve discovered rocks long thought
vanished, the youngest remains of the oldest and biggest impact
crater on Earth.
In the abraded heart of South Africa’s Vredefort impact crater
lurk striking green-black rocks, some of the only remnants of a
magma sea that once filled the gaping crater, according to a study
to be published this May in the journal Geology. Until now,
geologists thought nearly all of these “impact melt” rocks were lost
to time. Some 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Vredefort crater has worn
away since it was whacked open 2.02 billion years ago.
“It’s like discovering a new rock type in the Grand Canyon,”
said study co-author Desmond Moser, a geochronologist at
Western University in Ontario, Canada. “Vredefort has been
walked over for 100 years.”
A separate study in the same issue of Geology reports the best
evidence yet for possible Vredefort impact ejecta. The vaporized
beads of rock were blasted into the atmosphere and rained down
1,550 miles (2,500 km) away, on a proto-continent that became
northwest Russia and Scandinavia, the researchers said.
“I think this is a definite step forward in trying to understand
the top of the Vredefort structure,” said Matthew Huber, lead
author of the second study and a planetary geologist at the
University of Brussels in Belgium.
Off with its Head
The ancient Vredefort impact structure was once a much
bigger crater, about 185 miles (300 km) across, scientists estimate.
The asteroid or meteor that hit proto-Africa was 6 miles (10 km)
wide and excavated a hole 10 times deeper than the Grand Canyon,
Moser said. The impact’s tremendous heat melted the Earth’s crust,
creating a magma lake. Moser and his co-author Lisa Cupelli have
also explored the remains of a similar molten sea at Ontario’s
Sudbury crater, which is just slightly smaller and younger than
Vredefort.
At Vredefort, little of this impact melt lake remains. There are
messy impact-related breccias, formed as slices of crust slumped
into the crater just after impact. The slices slid so fast that the
resulting friction melted rock into glass called pseudotachylite.
There are also lava-filled fractures called dikes, stuffed with a rock
known as granophyre, forged from fingers of the impact melt that
penetrated the local rock.
But Moser made a lucky find in the 1990s in the center of the
crater. He was trying to pin down Vredefort’s age when he
accidently discovered pristine, 2.02-billion-year-old zircons — tiny
minerals with no signs of violent shocks. The zircons were stuck in
A 3-billion-year-old shocked zircon that survived the Vredefort impact.
So Moser and Cupelli recently returned to South Africa and
searched for definitive evidence that the magma dikes were as
young as the crater itself.
“I wanted to put away all the doubts that this was
impact-related,” Cupelli said.
Now Cupelli, who led the new study, thinks the team can
prove the magmas were born in Vredefort’s impact melt. The
zircons are randomly distributed and interlaced with their
surrounding minerals — they couldn’t have grown from the heat
of impact later than their neighbors, she said. The zircons also
crystallized between 1,337 to 1,702 degrees Fahrenheit (725º to
928º Celsius), hotter than normal on Earth, but the same
temperature as in Sudbury’s impact melt.
Finally, levels of the element hafnium suggest that the magma
melted from the 3-billion-year-old rocks originally overlying the
crater (the same sedimentary and volcanic rocks in nearby
Witwatersrand Basin), not from the very deep crust now exposed
by 2 billion years of erosion.
10
Race for New Rocks
The new study has already kicked off a search for Moser’s
rocks by other Vredefort researchers, who hope to confirm or deny
the results.
“I think the final solution to this dilemma is still out there,”
said Uwe Reimold, a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin
and director of the Museum für Naturkunde. Reimold is firmly in
the anti-impact-melt camp, though he praised the study’s zircon
chemical techniques. “I still think this is consistent with an
interpretation as a pseudotachylytic breccia,” Reimold said. “I have
not changed my mind.”
January 2015
But Huber noticed a resemblance to round impact glass
(called spherules) and asked for permission to examine the rock
samples: two drill cores acquired during the Fennoscandian Arctic
Russia–Drilling Early Earth Project (FARDEEP).
“We quickly found evidence that these were impact
spherules,” Huber said. “We started finding some dumbbells, and
some that were completely pulled apart into a teardrop shape,
which is completely impossible for ooids.”
The impact glass is completely replaced by minerals such as
calcite and pyrite, but rare, space-linked elements such as
platinum and ruthenium remain. The glass is scattered in rock
whose age ranges from 2.05 billion to 1.98 billion years. That
span means there’s a chance a different impact could have blasted
the spherules into the sky, but they do match the expected
characteristics of a Vredefort-like event, Huber said.
“We’re hoping to do more geochemistry on these particular
rocks to try and nail down even further what the source would
have been,” Huber said. Future plans include trying to figure out
what kind of space hunk smashed into Earth, and comparing the
spherules to Vredefort’s unique mineralogy.
“I hope this inspires people to look more carefully at their
rocks,” he said. “It’s really important to look for these fine details
to better understand the cratering history of the Earth.”
Source: LiveScience.com 04/30/2014
The Demidoff Malachite Mine:
Russia’s Treasure House
By Daniel E Russell
Lisa Cupelli at an outcrop of gabbronorite at the Vredefort impact crater.
But Moser thinks the unusual appearance of Vredefort’s
impact melt could also help researchers search for older impact
craters, which have been confirmed only through discovery of
impact ejecta. Impact beds go back to 3.5 billion years, but
confirmed craters end with Vredefort. Yet there are very old rocks
with similar compositions and textures, such as the distinctive
layering of Vredefort’s impact melt, scattered across the Earth, the
researchers said.
“What Vredefort teaches us is that we haven’t been looking
with the right set of eyes at some of these ancient rocks,” Moser
said.
Looking Right Round
The right set of eyes was key in finding Vredefort’s impact
ejecta in Karelia, Russia. The vaporized rock had originally been
identified as ooids, which are tiny spheres of calcium carbonate
that usually form in shallow tropical seas, such as the Bahama
Banks.
Few ornamental stones are so closely associated with
Imperial Russia as malachite. The appreciation of this simple
copper carbonate by Russia’s aristocracy is attested to by the
exquisite vases and tabletops, produced by Russia’s lapidaries,
culminating in the construction of the famous “Malachite Room”
in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
One of the primary sources for Russia’s supply of gem
malachite, and a vital producer of copper, was a large deposit
located in Nizhne-Tagil’skoye, in Sverdlovskaya Oblast’. (It was
not the sole producer of malachite for ornamental use, with a
nearby deposit at Bogoslowsk and another at Gumeschewsk
further to the south both producing malachite as copper ore and as
ornamental stone.) [As always, the transliteration of Russian
language place names is an entertaining past-time, and has
produced a diversity of variations of spellings over the past 200
years.]
The copper deposits here were discovered by Nikita
Demidoff, operator of the first munitions factory in Russia.
Charged by Peter the Great to cast cannon for the government,
Demidoff was sent east into the Urals to search out suitable iron
and copper deposits to provide the raw metal his factory needed.
In 1725, after finding the iron he needed, he noted lumps of green
mineral in the possession of the serfs in the area around
“Nijni-Tagnil” (often spelled Nizhni-Tagilsk; today,
Nizhne-Tagil’skoye) which he immediately recognized as
malachite. It would become one of the most important copper
deposits in Imperial Russia, producing copper ore and gem
malachite for more than 175 years.
Around 1835, 1836 or 1837, “the largest mass of malachite
ever known” was discovered at the Demidoff mine. According to
Knox (1877):
The miners, who were working a vein of copper, found
some shreds or strips of copper extending downward,
January 2015
and the superintendent of the mine ordered them to follow
these shreds, in hopes of striking another vein. The work
was pushed forward, or rather downward, and the stray
threads of ore were traced in all their windings. Two
hundred and eighty feet below the mine, the shreds
disappeared, and the superintendent was about to give up
the enterprise in disgust and despair, when the men
suddenly came upon a huge mass of malachite. It was
broken up and taken to the surface, and the aggregate
weight of the mass was estimated at seventy tons! It was
this lot that supplied the most of the malachite in the
Church of St. Isaac [in St. Petersburg], and from it, also,
was made the enormous vase which the Emperor of
Russia sent to His Holiness the Pope.
The Encyclopedia Americana (1919) adds the block’s
dimensions were “length, 10 ½ feet, width, 8 feet, height 3 ½ feet;
the estimated weight was from 25 to 30 tons. As many as 125
horses were used to haul this mass from the mine to Ekaterinburg.”
Dana (1854) notes that at at Nizhne-Tagil’skoye “a bed of
malachite was opened which yielded many tons of malachite; one
mass measured at top 9 by 18 ft.; and the portion uncovered
contained at least half a million pounds of pure malachite.”
11
Malachite is prepared for ornamental use by sawing
masses of the character of those previously referred to
into thin strips, which are then fastened as a veneer on
vessels of copper, slate, or other stone previously turned
to the desired shape. Putting pieces together so that
neither by their outlines nor color will it appear that they
are patch¬work, requires a high degree of skill, and such
work is done almost exclusively in Russia. Table tops,
vases, and various other vessels are manufactured in this
way, and form objects of great beauty.
Russia furnishes most of the malachite suitable for work
of this kind, and the art of cutting and fitting the stone is
possessed almost exclusively in that country. Most of the
Russian malachite has been obtained from the mines of
Nizhni-Tagilsk and Bogoslowsk, in the northern Urals,
or Gumeschewsk, in the southern. The supply has
gradually decreased till now only the Nizhni-Tagilsk
mines are productive. The malachite occurs there in
veins in limestone.
References
Dana, James Dwight A System of Mineralogy New York 1854.
Encyclopedia Americana “Malachite” New York (1919).
Farrington, Oliver Cummings: Gems and Gem Mineral, New
York City 1903.
Howard Painter Report On The Metallurgy Of Lead, Silver,
Copper, And Zinc, Vienna International Exhibition, 1873.
Government Printing Office. 1875.
Knox, Thomas W. The Underground World. Hartford 1877.
Source: Mindat.org.
“Pawn Stars”: Man's Fake ‘Amber Rock’ Ends
up Costing Him Money
During the second half of the 19th Century, the Demidoff
Mine was producing about 40% of Russia’s total output of refined
copper (which, in 1872, amounted to 1,501,026 kilograms of
refined copper from Nizhne-Tagil’skoye alone). The ores were
extremely rich, containing up to 16% copper – most of which was
in the form of an easily reducible carbonate.
In 1873, the Demidoff Mine (then under the control of Prince
Paul Demidoff) sent an exhibit of their copper ores an intermediary
smelting products to the Vienna International Exhibition.
According to Painter (1875) their display consisted of ores that
included “copper and iron pyrites and copper carbonates. The
products were slag from ore-smelting, matte, black and refined
copper; the latter was of a light-rose color, and had a remarkably
distinct crystalline structure.”
Of the use in Russia of malachite as an ornamental stone,
Oliver C. Farrington, curator of Chicago’s Field Museum, wrote in
1903:
Madison was under the impression he had a piece of Baltic
amber that was between 40 and 50 million years old with a
tarantula trapped
inside that he could
get up to $50,000 for.
He was hopeful
because he got the
rock tested at Berkley
and had paperwork
sayi ng that the
material appeared to
be Baltic amber. Rick
Harrison said the test
wasn't definitive, and
that he needed to have the rock tested at the GIA, or the
Gemological Institute of America to know for sure.
Madison paid $200 to get it tested, and it turns out ... it's
plastic. Rick Harrison had to break the bad news, telling Madison
that 'It's worth negative $200.'
Bummer!
Madison got the rock when he was just 10 years old, so he
was pretty stunned. Harrison said the rock was likely made of
Bakelite, which is used to simulate Amber.
TheTwitterverse felt for Madison, and were skeptical that the
amber was fake from the start.
Facebook fans had the same feeling he would be out $200.
Hey, you win some, you lose some.
Source AOL.com from June 13, 2014
12
January 2015
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2015 NYMC Membership Dues!
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Forget the slander you have heard;
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Forget the whole affair, because,
Forgetting is the only way.
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Forget the knocker, and the squeak;
Forget the bad day of the week.
Forget you're not a millionaire;
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Forget to even get the blues But don't forget
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Please take the time to send in your
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if you have not already done so.
And get yourself a set or two of note cards —
they make great gifts!
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January 2015
World’s Oldest Rocks Found to Contain Key
Building Block for Life
By Becky Oskin
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A critical building block for
creating the first life on Earth was found in 3.8-billion-year-old
rocks from Isua, Greenland, researchers reported this week here at
the annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference.
13
RNA-based life, Grew reported. “This is consistent with the
scenario Dr. Kakegawa suggested,” Grew said. “There could have
been a role for boron in the stabilizing of ribose in the RNA origin
of life.”
Grew found evidence for boron-rich seawater cycling through
the Isua volcanic rocks, despite a lack of continental crust. The
tourmaline formed in an environment resembling today’s deep-sea
hydrothermal vents, where superheated seawater and other fluids
spew from volcanic fractures.
The abundant tourmalines indicate the fluids circulating
through the ancient rocks were rich in boron, Grew said. “There is
no convincing evidence of seawater boron concentrations being
lower at 3.8 billion years ago than at the present,” Grew said.
Source: LiveScience.com June 16, 2014
Hidden ‘Ocean’ Discovered Deep Underground
Near Earth’s Core
By Sara Gates
Scientists have found a critical building block for the first life on Earth in
3.8-billion-year-old rocks from Isua, Greenland. Here, early Archean serpentine mud
volcanoes in Isua.
For the first time, rich concentrations of the element boron
have been found in Isua’s ancient marine rocks, study author
Takeshi Kakegawa, a professor at Tohoku University in Japan,
said Monday (June 9). The discovery signals that boron was
circulating in seawater and was absorbed by marine clays, which
eventually became tourmaline, he said.
Boron can stabilize ribose, one of three key components of
RNA. Ribose, an organic sugar molecule, has a short half-life and
naturally decomposes without a stabilizer. Many researchers think
life on Earth descended from RNA, which self-assembled from
building blocks such as ribose.
Until now, theories for the origin of RNA life pointed to
RNA-based chemicals arriving on Earth from Mars. That’s
because Earth’s first rocks and oceans seemed devoid of boron,
which takes the form of borate minerals on Earth. On Mars, clays
with boron and another RNA stabilizer, molybdenum, are
abundant.
“I want to challenge this idea that the early ocean was borate
free,” Kakegawa said. “The early ocean already contained borate,
and therefore, early Earth — not Mars — could provide
environments to stabilize ribose.”
The Isua rocks are among the oldest pieces of crust still
around from Earth’s earliest eons. The layers were deposited under
a liquid water ocean, perhaps when life was first emerging. After
billion of years of continental smashups, the rocks have been
heated, faulted and folded, but geologists can still decipher their
original history. Some of the rocks were seafloor sediments, such
as mud and chert, and others were lavas erupted from underwater
volcanic vents, such as pillow basalts.
Kakegawa discovered the boron in tiny tourmaline crystals
trapped inside garnets in the ancient seafloor sediments. The
garnets and tourmalines formed after the sediments were
deposited, when the rocks were metamorphosed. Boron is one of
the major elements of tourmaline.
Isua’s volcanic rocks also carry boron-rich tourmalines,
according to a separate study reported Wednesday (June 11) by
Edward Grew, a professor at the University of Maine.
Hydrothermal fluids circulating in the rocks are the likely source
of the boron, Grew said.
Boron has two isotopes (elements with different numbers of
neutrons in their nuclei). The boron isotope ratio in Isua’s volcanic
rocks also suggests early oceans carried enough boron to support
We may have another “ocean” to add to the world map – only
this one is hidden hundreds of miles beneath our planet’s surface.
A new study suggests that a hidden “ocean” is nestled in the
Earth’s mantle some 400 miles beneath North America. The
hidden reservoir, apparently locked in a blue crystalline mineral
called ringwoodite, may hold three times as much water that exists
in all the world’s surface oceans.
This discovery may help explain where Earth’s water supply
came from, and how subterranean water affects the shifting of rock
in the Earth’s outer crust – a phenomenon scientists call plate
tectonics.
Fragments of the blue-colored mineral called ringwoodite, synthesized in the
laboratory.
“Geological processes on the Earth’s surface, such as
earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are an expression of what is
going on inside the Earth, out of our sight,” geophysicist Dr.
Steven Jacobsen, an associate professor at Northwestern
University, said in a written statement. “I think we are finally
seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help
explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our
habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep
water for decades.”
Working with University of New Mexico seismologist Dr.
Brandon Schmandt, Jacobsen used seismometers to measure
earthquakes and the speed of resulting seismic waves at various
14
depths in the Earth. From those readings, the team saw that seismic
waves seem to slow down when they hit the layer of ringwoodite
in the mantle – leading them to theorize that the mineral was
saturated with liquid.
To verify the theory, the team then attempted to replicate the
ringwoodite layer in the laboratory. They found that ringwoodite
attracts hydrogen and that it’s capable of absorbing water much
like a sponge, the Guardian reported.
So, according to the research, the hidden “ocean” may be
trapped in the transition zone between the Earth’s upper and lower
mantle. The researchers think that movement within the mantle
spurred a reaction that led the water to merge with the ringwoodite.
While some scientists subscribe to the theory that Earth’s
early water came from comets that came our way, the discovery of
the hidden reservoir suggests that the world’s water emanated from
deep beneath the surface.
“It’s good evidence the Earth’s water came from within,”
Jacobsen told New Scientist.
A paper describing the research was published in the journal
Science on June 13, 2014.
Source: Huffington Post 06/13/2014
Workers Prepare To Clean Site Of ‘Atomic
Man’ Accident
By Nicholas K. Geranios
Harold McCluskey, who was contaminated with a near-lethal dose of radiation in a
chemical explosion at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland,
Washington, is pictured in March 1977. (AP Photo)
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Workers are preparing to enter
one of the most dangerous rooms on the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation — the site of a 1976 blast that exposed a technician to
a massive dose of radiation, which led to him being nicknamed the
“Atomic Man.”
Harold McCluskey, then 64, was working in the room when
a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode. He was
exposed to the highest dose of radiation from the chemical element
americium ever recorded — 500 times the occupational standard.
Hanford, located in central Washington state, made plutonium
for nuclear weapons for decades. The room was used to recover
radioactive americium, a byproduct of plutonium.
Covered with blood, McCluskey was dragged from the room
and put into an ambulance headed for the decontamination center.
Because he was too hot to handle, he was removed by remote
control and transported to a steel-and-concrete isolation tank.
During the next five months, doctors laboriously extracted tiny
bits of glass and razor-sharp pieces of metal embedded in his skin.
January 2015
Nurses scrubbed him down three times a day and shaved every
inch of his body every day. The radioactive bathwater and
thousands of towels became nuclear waste.
McCluskey also received some 600 shots of zinc DTPA, an
experimental drug that helped him excrete the radioactive material.
He was placed in isolation in a decontamination facility for
five months. Within a year, his body’s radiation count had fallen
by about 80 percent and he was allowed to return home.
But his radiation-related medical problems proliferated. He
had a kidney infection, four heart attacks in as many months and
cataract surgery on both eyes, followed by a cornea transplant and
a precipitous drop in his blood platelet count, which required
transfusions.
Friends at first avoided him until his minister told people it
was safe to be around him. The accident sapped his stamina, and
he was unable to hunt, fish or do any of the things he had planned
for his retirement. He was studied extensively by doctors for the
rest of his life and died of coronary artery disease in 1987 at the
age of 75.
Hanford contains the nation’s greatest collection of nuclear
waste, and for more than two decades has been engaged in the
dangerous work of cleaning up that waste. The space now dubbed
the McCluskey Room is located inside the closed Plutonium
Finishing Plant and is scheduled for cleanup this summer.
“It’s been largely closed up since the accident,” Geoff Tyree,
a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland, said
Wednesday. “It was restricted for the potential for airborne
radiation contamination.”
Since 2008, the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M
HILL Plateau Remediation Company have been preparing the
plant for demolition.
“About two-thirds of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is
deactivated — cleaned out and ready for demolition,” said Jon
Peschong, an assistant DOE manager in Richland. “Cleaning out
the McCluskey Room will be a major step forward.”
When specially trained and equipped workers enter the room
this summer, they will encounter airborne radioactivity, surface
contamination, confined spaces and poor ventilation, the DOE
said.
They will be wearing abrasion-resistant suits that protect them
from surface contamination and chemicals. A dual-purpose air
system will provide cool air for breathing and cool air throughout
the suit for worker comfort, allowing them to work for longer
periods of time. The suits are pressurized, to prevent workers from
coming into contact with airborne contaminants.
The McCluskey Room “is going to be the toughest work
ahead of us as we finish cleaning the plant and getting it ready for
demolition by the end of September 2016,” Tyree said.
January 2015
15
2015 Club Calendar
Date
Event
Location
Remarks & Information
January 14, 2015
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Mitch Portnoy – “Malachite”;
Malachite (Chinese) Auction – New!!
Sunday
January 18
Annual Benefit Sale
46 West 83rd #2E, Manhattan
11:00 am until . . .
Primarily Nik Nikiforou/Globe Minerals
donation of 30+ flats of worldwide minerals
February 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Members’ Show & Tell
March 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Alfredo Petrov –
“Pseudomorphs – False Forms of Minerals”
April 8
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse (Artist) – “NYC
is a Geologic Force”
May 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Renée Newman – “Exotic
Gems and the Jewelry Business Today”
June 10
Benefit Auction
Holiday Inn Midtown, Mezz C
100+ diverse lots, not to be missed!
July/August
Tentative Club Events
TBD
Details to Follow; Officers’ Planning Meeting
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
October 7
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
Theme: NYC Subway / Garnet
Lots More Details to Follow
November
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
December
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
Location
2015 Show or Event Calendar
Date
Event
January 2015
United Nations’ International Year of Light Begins!
January 31
47th Annual Geology
Museum Open House
Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, New Jersey
Lectures, Mineral ID, Mineral Sale
Early February 2015
Tucson Shows
Tucson, Arizona
Temporary Mineral & Gem World Capital!
February 14-15
Capital District Gem,
Mineral & Fossil Show
New York State Museum, Empire
Plaza, Albany, New York
Contact: Michael Hawkins email
[email protected]
March 7-8
Spring New York City Gem,
Grand Ballroom, Holiday Inn
Midtown, New York City
20+ diverse dealers; lectures; wholesale
section (with credentials); Club Booth
March 27-29
EFMLS Convention/Show
Hickory, North Carolina
Article Contest Results; Details to Follow
October 23-24
AFMS Convention/Show
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
Mineral Clubs & Other Institutions
If you would like your mineral show included here, please let us know at least 2-3 months in advance!
Also, for more extensive national and regional show information check online:
AFMS Website: http://www.amfed.org and/or the EFMLS Website: http://www.amfed.org/efmls
The New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Founded in 1886 for the purpose of increasing interest in the science of mineralogy through
the collecting, describing and displaying of minerals and associated gemstones.
P.O. Box 77, Planetarium Station, New York City, New York, 10024-0077, http://www.nymineralclub.org
2015 Executive Committee
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
46 W. 83rd Street #2E, NYC, NY, 10024-5203
27 E. 13th Street, Apt. 5F, NYC, NY, 10003
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
265 Cabrini Blvd. #2B, NYC, NY, 10040
25 Cricklewood Road S., Yonkers, NY, 10704
84 Lookout Circle, Larchmont, NY, 10538
6732 Ridge Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY, 11220
2801 Emmons Ave, #1B, Brooklyn, NY, 11235
e-mail: [email protected].. . . . . . . . . . .
e-mail: [email protected]. .
e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . .
e-mail: [email protected].. . . . .
e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . .
e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . . .
e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . .
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Dues: $25 Individual, $35 Family per calendar year. Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of every month (except July and August) at the Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, 57th Street
between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, New York City, New York. Meetings will generally be held in one of the conference rooms on the Mezzanine Level. The doors open
at 5:30 P.M. and the meeting starts at 6:45 P.M. (Please watch for any announced time / date changes.) This bulletin is published monthly by the New York Mineralogical
Club, Inc. The submission deadline for each month’s bulletin is the 20th of the preceding month. You may reprint articles or quote from this bulletin for non-profit usage
only provided credit is given to the New York Mineralogical Club and permission is obtained from the author and/or Editor. The Editor and the New York Mineralogical
Club are not responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of information or information in articles accepted for publication, nor are the expressed opinions necessarily those
of the officers of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Next Meeting – Wednesday, January 14, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Mezzanine, Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan (57th St. & Tenth Avenue), New York City
Special Lecture: Mitch Portnoy — “Malachite: Ornamental and Collectible”
New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Mitchell Portnoy, Bulletin Editor
P.O. Box 77, Planetarium Station
New York City, New York 10024-0077
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 2
February 11th Meeting:
Members’ Showcase: “Annual
Show & Tell”
January 2015 NYMC Special
Sale A Whopping Success!
By Mitch Portnoy
At each year’s NYMC Members’ Showcase
everyone has a chance to share something
interesting with his/her fellow members.
Although there are no specific topical
restrictions, here are some areas on which
we would encourage members to focus with
their short presentations:
Recent Acquisition(s)
Recent Show Purchase(s)
Field Collecting Stories
Museum/Exhibit/Show Visits
Recent Creations/Designs
Gem/Jewelry Topics
Book/Magazine Suggestions
If you intend to participate in the Showcase,
it would be helpful if you let Mitch know so
he can put you on the agenda and thereby
give everyone adequate time to speak.
Please telephone or email him (see last page
for numbers/email address). You can expect
to hear the following brief presentations:
Vivien Gornitz: Mars vs. Colorado
Mitch Portnoy: Coins & Gems
Eric Rampello: Mineral Slices
Rich Rossi: Recent Acquisitions
Susan Rudich: Mineral Fashion (?)
Jesus Sanchez: Honduran Gold
Lenore Weber: Charoite Carvings
says “2014”, you still owe your 2015 dues. Please
take the time now to mail in your dues in order to
prevent uninterrupted delivery of your bulletin. A handy
form appears on page 12. Dues are $25 for individual,
$35 for family. Mail to: Membership Coordinator, N.Y.
NYC, NY 10024-0077.
February 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015 was a very
good day for the New York Mineralogical
Club’s Treasury as nearly $2,000 was
added to it due to the tremendous success
of this year’s Benefit Sale.
Over 35 NYMC members, friends and
family added mineral specimens to their
collection, choosing from hundreds of
minerals contained in 30 well-organized
flats displayed in the apartment of Mitch
Portnoy on the Upper West Side.
Also available for purchase during the
event were the club’s inventory of note
cards, the wide selection of gemstone
floaty pens, NYMC posters, International
Year of Light covers, wooden display
stands, meeting program CD-ROMs, as
well as various Club publications.
The most recent club postcards,
remaining books and pamphlets and some
“leftover” specimens were given away for
free.
The event, which almost did not
happen (more on that later!), had this
favorable outcome because of the amazing
variety, quality and great values/prices of
the specimens, all donated by NYMC
member Nik Nikiforou of Globe
Minerals (www.globeminerals.com).
Although the minerals offered were
certainly varied both in terms of species
and locality, Nick’s fondness for quartz
and fluorite, as well as specimens from
China, Morocco, Mexico and Southern
Africa was apparent.
Some specific highlights were:
Fluorite from China
Hematite from Morocco
Vanadinite/Barite from Morocco
Malachite/Dolomite from Morocco
Aegerine/Feldspar from Malawi
Pyrite Cubes from Spain
Gypsum “Roses” from Mexico
Aragonite from Mexico
Biotite Pseudomorphs from Brazil
Sphalerite from Peru
Malachite from Arizona
As I said, this event almost did not
happen! For the most part, we have been
having this “annual” sale not only to help
raise some money but also to find homes
for the “excess” donated specimens. As of
last month, because of the general success
of the other distribution channels we have
(auctions, raffles, etc.) and the Club’s high
participation rate, there really were not
enough remainders to schedule a
worthwhile special sale.
Nick decided to “solve” this
“problem” by organizing his business’s
“excess” inventory and donating it to the
Club. I asked him for 10/12 flats; he
wound up giving 30. We thank him for
his unbridled generosity!
Coming Soon!
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Unique Snowflakes?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Cleopatra’s Needle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A Love Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Crushing Diamonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The New Black.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: The Blues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Topics in Gemology: Pink. . . . . . . . . 9
Essay: Your Atomic Self. . . . . . . . . 11
IYL Posters Available. . . . . . . . . . . 12
2
By Mitch Portnoy
How Did the Chinese Auction Go?
The Club’s first-ever Chinese auction
proved to be a fun and popular activity at
the January 2015 meeting. Twenty
specimens and objects, all related to the
evening’s lecture topic of malachite, were
offered and bid for. The lucky winners
were announced throughout the evening,
generally in between sections of the
lecture. A whopping $230 was raised for
the Club. (Each sheet of 25 chances was
$2.) Given all the positive feedback I
received during and after the activity, we
will likely schedule another similar event
either in the second half of 2015 or in
early 2016.
2015 Dues are Due!
Please remember to send in your dues
check if you have not already done so. Not
sure? If you get your bulletin via regular
mail, check the label to see your status. If
you get your bulletin via email, ask me!
2015 NYMC Commemorations
The NYMC will celebrate the fact
that 2015 is the International Year of
Light with a series of mineral/gem games
pertaining to “light” at each meeting, the
first at this month’s meeting. In addition,
there will be a special visual and musical
tribute to Albert Einstein in honor of the
100th anniversary of General Relativity.
Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version
Electronic Storage
Club Saves Money
Receive Special Mailings
Go Green!
Requires
Email Request to Mitch
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional
Printer (B/W or Color)
January 14, 2015
Attendance: 47
Announcements:
A new event for the club, a “Chinese
Auction” was held throughout the
meeting featuring malachite related
items.
The arrival of the UN’s International
Year of Light was announced, along
with the 100th Anniversary of
Relativity. New note cards set on these
topics are available (along with 20+
other sets).
A malachite locality game was held.
The usual historical days, items for
sale, and upcoming club events and
meeting lectures were previewed.
Special Lecture: Mitch Portnoy–
“Malachite: Ornamental and Collectible”
Malachite, the colorful, bright green
mineral, is a favorite in everybody’s mineral
collection. Mitch Portnoy, in a wellillustrated and very informative
presentation, highlighted some lesserknown aspects of its lengthy role in human
history and the multiple uses to which it has
been put, ranging from copper ore, to
pigment, cosmetic, ornamental stone and
gem.
Malachite, Cu2(CO3)(OH)2, forms
within the oxidized zone, as descending
rainwater, laden with dissolved Cu++ and
CO2, reacts with carbonate rocks. The name
derives from the Greek for “mallow’, after
the green, leafy plant, or possibly the
Hebrew work for king, “melech”, in
reference to the ancient Near East trade in
this raw material, controlled by the rulers.
Malachite transforms readily to native
copper, as shown in an entertaining film, as
a chemistry professor gently heats a
specimen over a Bunsen burner, turning it
first into the black cuprite, and then slowly
to the native metal, Cu. Thus, malachite
formed an important cornerstone in the birth
of ancient civilization—the dawn of the
Bronze Age!
Malachite exists in all continents,
including Antarctica. Besides its obvious
use as an important copper ore1, it was also
employed in ancient Egypt, Greece, and
Rome as a pigment, cosmetic, and
occasionally in jewelry. Because of its
importance as an ore, other uses were
limited until major copper deposits were
discovered in the southwest U.S. and Russia
in the 19th century. Russian enthusiasm for
this green stone knew no bounds. Malachite
lavishly decorated palace walls, columns,
February 2015
monuments, and giant urns. It also became a
popular gemstone in late Victorian, Art
Nouveau, Art Deco, and modern jewelry. Its
varied habits and sculptural forms produce
many attractive specimens that grace any
collection. Its relative softness and polished
luster make malachite a great carving
material. Today, the green, banded patterns
of malachite also appear on an unexpected
host of diverse materials: clothing, shoes,
home furnishings, compact cases, pens,
music boxes, in addition to abundant knickknacks, trinkets, and fake beads.
(1) Today, most copper is mined from very fine-grained
low-grade porphyry copper deposits of sub-volcanic
origin in which minerals such as chalcocite, covellite,
chalcopyrite, bornite, etc. are disseminated within the
igneous rock.
Members in the News

Dr. Oliver Sacks’s book, The Man Who
Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was
mentioned in a clue on ABC’s Jeopardy
on December 17, 2014.
Dr. George Harlow gave a talk entitled
Myanmar Discoveries to the GIA
Alumni on January 13, 2015.
Jesus Sanchez posted an image on
Facebook in early January 2015 of one
of his spectacular epidotes from
Honduras.
Welcome New Members!
Vanessa Zannis. . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
Coming in March:
Marvelous Pseudomorphs
Very Sad News
It is with much sorrow that we have learned
that Donald S. Lapham passed away on October
27, 2014. Don was a long time member of the
NYMC and a well-liked dealer of minerals and
fossils (Quarry Enterprises). Don and his wife
Audray have been perennial dealers at the NYC
Gem & Mineral Show.
It is with sadness that we inform you that
Sarna Strom passed away on December 11,
2014. Sarna was a long time member of the New
York Mineralogical Club and very popular dealer
of minerals and lapidary arts.
And lastly, Mitchell Bogen, a true Club
institution, passed away in early January. He was
83 and is survived by his wife and son Jules.
February 2015
3
Snowflake Shapes Are Not So Unique After All?
By Jacqueline Howard
Each snowflake may not be so unique after all.
While no one snowflake is exactly the same as another on
a molecular level, it turns out that all snowflakes fall into one of
35 different shapes, researchers say. Just take a look at this
infographic below of the different snowflake shapes from
chemistry teacher Andy Brunnin, who authors the blog
Compound Interest!
The graphic uses data from the global classification of snow
crystals, ice crystals, and solid precipitation published in the
journal Atmospheric Research in 2013.
How exactly do snowflakes form their amazing shapes?
A snowflake starts as a tiny grain of dust or pollen floating
in a cloud. Water vapor from the air sticks to the grain and
freezes, forming into a tiny hexagonal crystal. From there, more
vapor condenses on the crystal as it travels to the ground, and the
snowflake’s “arms” take shape.
“We still don’t know the precise variables behind the
formation of particular shapes,” Brunnin wrote on his blog,
“although researchers are continually working on theoretical
equations to predict snowflake shapes.”
Smithsonian reported that, though snowflakes are stunning
to observe, scientists classify snowflakes and analyze how they
form to better understand how crystals may be used in a host of
applications, from silicon to semiconductors in computers and
electronics.
So, there’s even more reason for the sky to, “Let it snow!
Let it snow! Let it snow!”
Source: Huffington Post Science from Jan. 3, 2015
Vivien is on a winter break!
Her popular column will be back next month.
4
How Cleopatra’s Needle Got to Central Park
By Kate Briquelet
It’s 70 feet tall, 220 tons and the city’s oldest artifact — but
many New Yorkers don’t know it exists.
Cleopatra’s Needle, a 3,500-year-old obelisk from Ancient
Egypt, survived a voyage to Central Park more than a century ago
and has been a park treasure ever since.
Cleopatra Needle's made a long and tedious journey to Central
Park.
Nestled behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
hieroglyph-covered column was commissioned by one of Egypt’s
most powerful pharaohs and reigns as among the last of its kind.
“It’s our oldest inhabitant,” says Dr. Bob Brier, a renowned
Egyptologist at Long Island University’s C. W. Post Campus in
Brookville, LI.
“When it was erected, everyone went bananas,” he adds.
“Then it was forgotten. Trees grew up around the knoll and
obscured it. People just stopped thinking about it.”
Still, Brier says the artifact’s history has enough twists and
turns to make a Hollywood film.
Erected in Heliopolis around 1450 BC, the obelisk was
toppled centuries later by Persian invaders. It was buried in the
dust for 500 years more until the Romans snatched it for -Julius
Caesar.
Now the Central Park Conservancy is embarking on a
$500,000 project to clean and preserve the monument — using
lasers to wipe away decades of dirt and pollution.
“There was a recent article about the obelisk, and the writer
said it’s boring,” says Brier, who visits the monument every
month. “He’s dead wrong. The obelisk is an engineering
achievement. It’s an ancient skyscraper.”
Despite its nickname, Central Park’s obelisk wasn’t made for
Cleopatra, but for the Napoleon of Egypt.
Thutmosis III amassed the greatest empire in Egyptian history
during his 54-year reign. The pharaoh came to power in 1479 BC
and claimed to have conquered more than 300 cities from Syria to
Sudan, leading his army from a chariot sheathed in gold.
Thutmosis was also a prolific builder, commissioning dozens
of temples and obelisks.
To celebrate his 30th year of rule, the pharaoh asked for a pair
of pillars to flank the sun temple in Heliopolis — a feat that sent
thousands of workers south to the Aswan quarry to cut each
monument from a single piece of red granite.
While Thutmosis was the brain behind the obelisks and
inscribed them with his name, two other kings later seized them
and added their own self-serving hieroglyphs to the four sides.
February 2015
Pharaoh Rameses II, who reigned from 1279 to 1212 BC,
inscribed his praises and left little room for Osorkon I, who
crammed his moniker on a lower edge.
The monuments towered above the Nile for more than 1,000
years, until Persians raided the city and toppled them. The obelisks
may have burned in the invasion and eroded from spending
hundreds of years in the sand.
The obelisks stood again around 12 BC, when Roman
conquerors uprooted and moved them to Alexandria. The artifacts
were placed then at a Caesarium, a temple honoring Julius Caesar.
After the collapse of the Roman empire, and even the fall of
the Caesarium, the obelisks still stood. At some point — no one’s
quite sure by whom — they were given their nickname:
Cleopatra’s Needles.
“Thutmosis’s pair of obelisks quietly faded into the scenery,
their presence taken for granted by the Alexandrians,” wrote
Martina D’Alton in a 1993 book on the obelisk.
“The obelisks remained unperturbed ... greeting incoming
ships and witnessing the departure of obelisks and other treasures
bound for distant shores.”
By the 19th century, Europe coveted Egyptian artifacts.
England was offered one of the Thutmosis columns in 1801 as a
gift for helping Egypt oust Napoleon.
It wasn’t erected in London until 1878, however, after a
hazardous journey that cost the lives of six men.
That year, the United States became determined to get an
obelisk of its own.
Cleopatra’s Needle was erected by Thutmose III at Heliopolis in about 1,460 BC,
later moved to Alexandria, and then to the USA.
America missed its first chance at an obelisk in 1869 at the
opening of the Suez Canal.
Bankrupt and beholden to European creditors, Egypt offered
February 2015
US officials the ancient pillar “not out of generosity and friendship
but out of desperation,” Brier writes in his 2013 book,
“Egyptomania.”
The offer was ignored — until New York was overcome with
obelisk envy at the sight of London’s gem.
That’s when William Henry Hulbert, editor of The New York
World newspaper, and E.E. Farman, the American consul-general
in Cairo, launched a public campaign to obtain one.
Egyptian representatives promised Farman an obelisk several
times before, and this time he asked for the offer in writing. Under
a new contract, Farman made sure the precious relic would go
specifically to New York.
In 1879, newspaper headlines declared obelisk victory.
Railroad mogul William Vanderbilt covered the obelisk’s
transport. Now America only needed a man for the daunting feat
of bringing it home.
5
home, while another merchant sold “Cleopatra Dates” in an
obelisk-shaped box, according to D’Alton. Some restaurants even
stirred up “Obbylish” cocktails.
“When the obelisk was erected, ladies wore mechanical lead
pencils around their necks in the shape of the obelisk,” Brier told
The Post. “People were going crazy.”
On Jan. 22, 1881, thousands of New Yorkers gathered to see
the obelisk assembled — two years after its journey from
Alexandria.
Before it was erected, a time capsule was buried under its base
with documents including the 1870 census, a copy of the
Declaration of Independence, Webster’s Dictionary and a small
box from Hurlbert. Its complete contents are unknown.
In 2011, the obelisk returned to the spotlight when an
Egyptian official accused New York of neglecting the ancient
structure and threatened to take it back.
In a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Zahi Hawass,
secretary-general for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, fumed
that the obelisk was “severely weathered over the past century and
that no efforts have been made to conserve it.
“Recent photographs that I have received show the severe
damage that has been done to the obelisk,” he wrote, “particularly
to the hieroglyphic text, which in places has been completely worn
away.”
The obelisk being transported.
Henry Gorringe, a decorated Navy commander, stepped
forward. At the time, the largest object to sail in the hold of a ship
was a 100-ton cannon heading from England to Italy, Brier writes.
(London had towed its obelisk.)
Gorringe’s team carefully lowered the obelisk with a cable
amid scores of protesters. They slid it into an 83-foot-long wooden
box, which was rolled with cannonballs onto a vessel bound for
Staten Island.
The obelisk set sail on June 12, 1880, and reached New York
a little over a month later. But the treacherous journey wasn’t over.
It took another five months for the artifact to reach Central Park.
First Gorringe hauled the obelisk’s 50-ton pedestal to 51st
Street and pulled it to the park with 32 horses.
The monument, meanwhile, was towed up the Hudson River
to 96th Street on pontoons. Gorringe built a special rail track to
move the obelisk through the city at a rate of only one block per
day.
As Cleopatra’s Needle inched toward its new home, New
York was enraptured in a wave of Egyptomania.
When the obelisk’s cornerstone was laid at Central Park’s
Graywacke Knoll, close to East 81st Street, at least 9,000
Free-masons marched up Fifth Avenue to commemorate it with a
ceremony.
New York merchants, including a needle company, doled out
trading cards in honor of the artifact, showing the Queen of the
Nile threading not a needle, but an obelisk.
A candy stand trailed the monument on the voyage to its new
Hieroglyphs on the obelisk.
The Parks Department and Central Park Conservancy
-rebuffed Hawass’ claims, saying the obelisk’s damage stems from
being engulfed in sand centuries ago.
Still, park honchos ordered a “weathering study” shortly after
the scathing letter. And a conservation project began this spring.
Bartosz Dajnowski — an Illinois-based conservationist who
also restored the George Washington statue at Federal Hall on
Wall Street — is cleaning the obelisk with lasers before repairing
cracks and covering it with protective coating.
The laser’s infrared beam is set to a distance of 1,064
nanometers and hits the soot but not the ancient granite, Dajnowski
told The Post. The pulse lasts about 100 nanoseconds, or 1
billionth of a second.
His three-man team’s meticulous method allows for the
scrubbing of 10 square feet an hour.
“The legibility of the hieroglyphs will significantly improve,”
Dajnowski said. “The dark deposits are visually distracting and
camouflaging some of the hieroglyphs.
6
“Once the stone surface is evenly clean, the details . . . will be
naturally highlighted by the sun, and the shadows cast inside the
carvings will make them more legible.”
Conservancy officials say the project won’t reveal any secrets,
but rather preserve the obelisk for the decades to come.
Brier, who has studied the artifact for 25 years, hopes to get on
the project’s scaffolding.
“Obelisks were almost always one piece, but the tip of our
obelisk looks like it was refurbished,” he said.
Perhaps Cleopatra’s Needle has one more mystery to be
solved.
February 2015
“Schist!” Brucite monazite. “I think I bustamite my ankerite and
cut my scapolite!” “Is there an orthoclase surgeon here?” asked
Vivanite, looking to the (bar-4) help. Suddenly Brucite lepidolite
up and actinolite nothing was wrong. “Let’s gedrite out of here” he
said.
On the way to Minnesoaite, their vanadinite got a flat tirodite.
When they stopped, Vivianite saw a serpentine behind a
rosenbuschite and began to actinolite scared and tremolite. “Be
carpholite,” she said. “Ulexite it and an atacamaite be dangerous
for its biotite is fayalite without an epidote.” Just then a wulfenite
appeared on the sphene, saw the serpentine, and forsterite down its
throat asbestos he could. Then suddenly, it re-goergeyited the
lifeless serpentine. “Oh, gross-ular!” said Brucite. “Can it stilbite?”
asked Vivianite.
Eventually, Vivianite did marry Brucite in an Anglesite
church, and their son Allanite was bornite by natrolite birth.
Allanite was quite a hypersthene lad who looked like Beryl Flint
in his pyrite movies. Later, Allanite found he was
homo-septochlorite and started to datolite Franklinite, who was
also gehlenite. But that’s anorthite love staurolite.
Scientists Crush Diamonds With ‘Star Trek’
Engine
By Ken Croswell
The world’s largest laser, a machine that appeared in a Star
Trek movie, has attained a powerful result: squeezed diamond, the
least compressible substance known, 50 million times harder than
Earth’s atmosphere presses down on us. The finding should help
scientists better understand how material behaves at the great
pressures that prevail deep inside giant planets.
View of the cleaning and renovation of the obelisk.
Source: New York Post from June 15, 2014
A Love Staurolite to Make You Grunerite
M. J. Kohn-dradite and T. Peare-oxene
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics,
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706
NIF Target Chamber. This view from the bottom of the chamber shows the target
positioner being inserted. Pulses from NIF's high-powered lasers race toward the
Target Bay at the speed of light. They arrive at the center of the target chamber within
a few trillionths of a second of each other, aligned to the accuracy of the diameter of
a human hair.
Brucite and Vivianite were seated in a (bar-1) day, drinking
margarites and sodalites. Abruptly Brucite asked “Deerite
Vivianite, willemite you marry me?” “Are you in-sanidine?
Never!” cryolite Vivianite. “OK, don’t make esseneite,” said
Brucite. “FATS chance” ripidolite Vivianite. “Well then, willemite
you goethite eastonite witherite meionite to Minnesotaite?” “Yes,
of quartz,” said Vivianite.
As they left, Brucite feldspar on the barite marble fluorite and
lay stilbite. “Oh my gold!” exclaimed Vivanite. “Are you chert?”
Physicist Ray Smith of the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in Livermore, California, and his colleagues achieved
the feat at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), also in Livermore.
Spanning 10 meters and armed with scores of lasers, the
instrument is so sci-fi–looking that it appeared as the “warp core”
of the Starship Enterprise in the 2013 movie Star Trek Into
Darkness. NIF has a practical purpose, however: to trigger nuclear
fusion, the same type of reaction that powers the sun, in the hope
of someday solving our energy needs. Scientists also use it for
February 2015
basic research, such as investigating how various materials respond
when compressed—data relevant to the interiors of planets.
In the new study, Smith’s team fired 176 lasers at a small gold
cylinder measuring 1.1 centimeters long and 0.6 centimeters in
diameter. The lasers heated the gold so that it emitted x-rays,
which squeezed a tiny diamond attached over a hole in the
cylinder’s outer wall. The diamond reached a pressure of 50
million atmospheres—14 times greater than the pressure at Earth’s
center.
As the researchers report online yesterday (July 17) in Nature,
the x-ray assault nearly quadrupled the diamond’s density. “That’s
a record,” Smith says. “No one’s compressed diamond to that
extent before.” The blast pulverized the diamond into dust, but
before the mineral’s destruction the scientists successfully
measured its density as the pressure rose. For a billionth of a
second, the diamond, which is normally 3.25 times denser than
water, became denser than lead and 12.03 times denser than water.
“This is an impressive accomplishment,” says David
Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
a planetary scientist who was not involved in the experiment. “This
is high-quality data at very high pressures.” Such great pressure is
comparable to that at the center of giant planets: Jupiter’s core has
a pressure between 40 million and 90 million atmospheres, while
the pressure at Saturn’s center is about 40 million atmospheres.
Neither world has a diamond core, however. Diamond consists
of carbon, and in our solar system oxygen is twice as common and
makes up silicate rocks, a major component of the sun’s planets.
Still, scientists have speculated that diamond worlds may exist
elsewhere. If a solar system arises with more carbon than oxygen,
then carbon should soak up the oxygen by forming carbon
monoxide, leaving excess carbon to create carbon planets—which,
under pressure, become diamond worlds. Thus, Smith says, the
new experiment will probe the nature of such planets.
Astronomer Jonathan Fortney of the University of California,
Santa Cruz, thinks carbon planets are rare, however, so he hopes
the scientists investigate other materials. One element he mentions
is iron, which may make up the cores of super-Earths—planets
several times more massive than our own. Smith says his team is
now studying this material and hopes to have results soon.
7
“These new materials, they are pretty much as black as we can
get, almost as close to a black hole as we could imagine,” Dr.
Stephen Westland, professor of color science and technology at
Leeds University in the U.K., who was not involved in
Vantablack’s development, told The Independent.
Surrey Nanosystem’' Vantablack material.
Vantablack could be used to boost the performance of
astronomical cameras, telescopes, and infrared scanning systems,
The Independent reported, and it may also have military
applications.
“We are now scaling up production to meet the requirements
of our first customers in the defense and space sectors, and have
already delivered our first orders,” Jensen said in the written
statement.
BBC News reported that Surrey NanoSystems will unveil its
new material at this week’s Farnborough International Air Show
in Hampshire, England.
Source: Huffington Post July 14, 2014
Source: Huffingtonpost.com Science July 18, 2014
This Just May Be the New Black
Scientists at Surrey Nanosystems, a nanotechnology company
in the U.K., have developed a new material -- dubbed
“Vantablack” – that just may be the world’s darkest material yet.
After all, the material absorbs 99.96 percent of light sent its way.
“Vantablack is a major breakthrough by U.K. industry in the
application of nanotechnology to optical instrumentation,” Ben
Jensen, the company’s chief technology officer, said in a written
statement. “For example, it reduces stray-light, improving the
ability of sensitive telescopes to see the faintest stars... Its ultra-low
reflectance improves the sensitivity of terrestrial, space and
air-borne instrumentation.”
So, what is this elusive material anyway? Vantablack is
created using super-black low-temperature carbon nanotubes,
which Discover magazine describes as one-atom thick sheets of
carbon that have been rolled into tubes.
The nanotubes are so tiny, Gizmodo reported, that when light
particles are absorbed, they’re trapped within the structure without
ever bouncing back into the air through the nanotubes.
This is a picture of some diamonds from an historic collection Elise
Skalwold is working on documenting. She spoke to us last year about The
Edward Arthur Metzger Gem Collection of Cornell University.
For Sale
Minerals from my personal collection
Many from old collections and no longer available.
Howard Heitner
(914) 274-1370 or [email protected]
8
February 2015
The Blues . . .
somewhat imperfect. Most of the cut stones (and most
specimens) are blue.
Our species for this month are all silicates – and, at times,
Lazurite, which may not even exist alone in nature, is best
they can also be blue. Kyanite, which is noted in blue, gray,
known in the material lapis lazuli; this
white, green, yellow and rarely orange,
is a rock with calcite, pyrite, etc., mixed
is easily found in our general region. It
with lazurite. Other minerals present in
is significant as a rock-forming mineral
the mix may include hauyne, sodalite,
and is found locally in Connecticut, for
and nosean, which are all related
example. Not too many years ago, a
species. Large pieces are known from
very rare find from Tanzania yielded
Afghanistan, Chile and Russia but
orange twins of kyanite that were met
rarely are fine materials found
with much collector interest. Lazurite is
elsewhere. Crystals of consequence to
always blue and often a very deep but
the collector will be essentially always
beautiful shade. Recently, the
found in Afghanistan; they can be up to
Mineralogical Record (Vol. 45, No. 3)
two inches in size and rarely exhibit
had an extensive article about the
razor-sharp edges. Lapis is found in
minerals from the “lapis region” of
Kyanite from Burma
Egyptian tombs and authorities think
Afghanistan. Sodalite can be blue,
mining in the Afghan area has been
white, gray, green or even pink
going on for about seven thousand
(hackmanite variety). Many years ago,
years. Perhaps, it is one of man’s oldest
both blue sodalite and hackmanite were
gemstones; it is also possibly the oldest
collected at Mt. St. Hilaire. Since
more or less continuous mining project
sodalite and lazurite may occur
in the world. Lapis has also been noted
together, the possibility exists for
locally in St. Lawrence County, New
confusion between the two. As a rule,
York.
massive sodalite is more coarse-grained
Sodalite is an important collector
and you often find calcite and pyrite
species, especially since the fine
embedded in lazurite. Fine crystals have
specimens were found in Afghanistan
been misidentified as described in the
over the last ten years or so. They can
M. R. article. Also, there is
be green, blue, purple, and colorless.
disagreement on what exactly is needed
Sizes, much to my surprise, approach
to call a sodalite by the varietal name
four inches. This is surprising when you
hackmanite. I’d suggest pink color and
consider the fact that many authors call
strong fluorescence. But, as I have said
the crystals rare (and not very large);
before, varietal names tend to do as
Lazurite from Afghanistan
this is no longer accurate. Much
much harm as good – you cannot be
sodalite, often veined with calcite, is
positive about what the specimen is and
seen in carvings, boxes and cabochons.
they do lead to labeling inconsistencies.
The best blue material, with very little
Kyanite is usually embedded in
veining, is not quite the same color as
schist and extremely unlikely to have
lapis but it is a less expensive
nicely terminated crystals. In Brazil,
alternative. Occasional faceted stones
there are clusters in quartz that are fine
are usually small (i.e., one carat or less)
specimens but they are also often poorly
and tend to be more or less translucent.
terminated. We collected near Roxbury,
Fluorescence is of special interest
Connecticut and found some large
because the variety hackmanite can be
crystals(over six inches) that were partly
pink in SW and yellow-orange in LW.
white to pink and may have been
White samples may turn red or purple
somewhat altered. Long ago, Judd’s
after SW exposure. One good locality is
Bridge (Connecticut) was a popular
Dungannon (Canada) and another is Mt.
place to collect kyanite. Among the
St. Hilaire. Afghan material, by contrast,
classic localities, St. Gothard,
Sodalite
from
Brazil
may exhibit pink, yellow and orange
Switzerland has always been a personal
colors upon exposure to UV. Robbins
favorite – at times, they are found with andalusite on the same
(1994)
has
an
entire
chapter
on fluorescence in sodalite which
specimen. Red, orange, and yellow fluorescence is noted
interested
readers
ought
to
peruse.
Kyanite has 1,308 localities
occasionally in kyanite. While it is rarely seen, kyanite up to 20
while lazurite has only 43; sodalite has 377 – all via mindat.org.
carats has been faceted; anything beyond 5 carats is likely to be
February 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
Pink Possibilities
The current impossible climate in Afghanistan means that
dealers with these gems are offering ‘old stock’. Even Afghani
nationals with family in the region are loathe to go back in
search of the goods, says veteran gem carver Sherris Shank of
Gemscapes. The pink rough comes out of the high mountainous
regions, she says. “No roads there of course, so goods are
loaded onto donkeys to make the trek downhill and ultimately
out of the country.” If that’s not enough to deal with in this
chaotic region, no one really knows who or where the bad guys
are.
8.97 ct Vortex Cut Nigerian Pink Tourmaline; Courtesy: Sherris Shanks, Gemscapes
Natural Nigerian Pink (mostly) Tourmaline Crystals
Oh the hubris over fancy pink diamonds! Admittedly they
are objects of desire and their at-auction price really depends on
who’s bidding that day, keeping in mind the last pink hammer
price. Less stellar budgets can still bask in that rosy glow via
fancy pink sapphires with a similar blushing tint. Both of those
gem types are finding new devotees and in so doing, many
collectors are reaching out to see what else the gem bag holds.
Your customers may have already developed a taste for
pinkies of one kind or another. But their budget will separate the
haves from the have-nots in short order. There are some other
natural pink gemstones to consider that will satisfy your starstruck customers however. The word is pink tourmaline.
The very name tourmaline signals its earliest admirers. From
the Sinhalese ‘tura mali’ meaning stone with mixed colors,
tourmaline has been unearthed in myriad hues for millennia. The
last dowager Empress of China Tz’u Hsi loved the stuff so much
she loaded up on the material from as far away as the Himalayas
to San Diego, CA.
Today pink tourmaline is gaining traction as an exotic and
coveted choice for modern jewelry collectors. Some of those fans
may be coming in to your store looking for an “I’ll know it when
I see it” sort of thing. Offer them this precious stone and tell
them the story.
Part of the pink tourmaline story refers to its most popular
deposits: Afghanistan and Nigeria, both hot spots of political
unrest. Sometimes the rough from either locale can look similar.
The most desirable hues seem to be straight medium toned
pink–neither peachy nor lilac tinted.
Nigerian pink tourmaline was more likely to be traded at
Tucson this year. That region has its own woes of course. Still
some rough is coming out of that country, Shank reports. Look
for more accessible sources like Mozambique, Tanzania and
Namibia to satisfy your customer’s burgeoning tastes for these
delights. Besides the color, sell the durability of these beauties.
At 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale, they take a beautiful polish to boot.
Offering these sensuous stones to your customers will whet
their appetite for out-of-the-ordinary stones, and open up story
telling opportunities for you to engage with them as they see the
unique beauty in these blushing jewels.
Pink (and Red) Tourmaline Has a Wide Range of Tones
10
February 2015
Please Send in Your
Forget
To Pay Your Dues!
And get yourself a set or two of note cards — they make great gifts!
Name (s)
Street Address
City
Home Phone
State
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Zip
E-mail
PLEASE!
G Thin Sections G Mineral Bookplates G Jade G Native Elements G Crystallography G Ruby G Tourmaline
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with your check to:
February 2015
Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements That
Connect You to Everything Else in the
Universe
By Curt Stager
One can only wonder how Albert Einstein might have
wrestled with the still-open question of how inanimate atoms
produce life. He freely acknowledged the limitations of human
understanding, including his own, and in July 1945, he wrote, “We
have to admire in humility the beautiful harmony of the structure
of this world – as far as we can grasp it. And that is all.” Science
alone can take us only so far in our efforts to grasp the world, but
sometimes teaming it with the arts can carry us the rest of the way
forward on that journey. As a musician, Einstein understood this,
and perhaps his love of music offered him insights into how life
arises from atoms in ways that are now described in terms of
“emergence.”
An emergent phenomenon arises from relatively simple
components that somehow become more than the sum of their
parts, as random scratches become letters if they are shaped in
certain ways. Letters can be grouped into words with meanings
that depend upon their sequences. The letters e, l, f, and i, for
example, can become “file” or “life.” Emerging from the same
kind of mysterious zone wherein the arrangements of words
produce literature, teeming atoms and molecules somehow become
living cells. In similar fashion a thousand minnows produce an
11
undulating shoal of silver, a million citizens make a city with a
distinctive identity, billions of coral polyps produce a complex and
colorful reef, and trillions of mindless cells create a colony that
walks, talks, and thinks of itself as a person.
Music, in this context, is an emergent phenomenon that arises
from sound waves in air, and even if it can’t completely explain
the origins of life, it can help describe life while also making it
more enjoyable. Einstein was an excellent violinist who
particularly loved Mozart’s music, and as his fame spread he was
often invited to perform with some of the world’s most
accomplished musicians. Pianist Artur Balsam, when asked about
the musical abilities of the revered author of relativity theory,
replied, “He is relatively good.”
But Einstein’s relationship to music was more personal than
professional, and although he could have owned the best of
instruments, he preferred to lug an inexpensive fiddle in a battered
case wherever he went. This included Camp Knollwood on Lower
Saranac Lake in New York’s Adirondack mountains, where he
often played alone on the veranda and also enjoyed playing duets
with the concert violinist Frances Magnes, another frequent
summer visitor to Knollwood. “If I were not a physicist,” Einstein
once said, “I would probably be a musician.... I see my life in
terms of music.”
What can music reveal about the atomic nature of life?
Physicists sometimes compare the oscillation patterns of orbiting
electrons to standing waves in the resonant strings of musical
instruments, and the vibration patterns of subatomic superstrings
have been said to resemble harmonic sequences that can be played
on a violin. But atoms are more difficult to define when considered
in terms of quantum mechanics, and both music and life resist
precise definitions as well. Biologists still argue over whether or
not some animals’ vocalizations constitute song or mere noise, and
even scientists who study the origins of life on Earth have no firm
definition of what life itself is. Try it yourself sometime, as I do
with students in my introductory biology class at Paul Smith’s
College, not far from Saranac Lake.
After the students list a dozen or so features, including eating,
respiring, responding to stimuli, and reproducing, I unveil a
chainsaw that lay hidden behind the lecture podium. As jaws drop
and laughter erupts, I pull the cord and the machine roars to “life.”
Nearly every feature on the list is displayed in the consumption of
fuel, the exhalation of waste gases, and the raucous responses to
my trigger finger. When I “kill” the engine, someone always asks,
“Wait, what about reproduction? It can’t be alive if it can’t
reproduce.” And as you might guess, a fairly crude reply soon
follows, along the lines of “What about a nun, then? Isn’t a nun
alive?” or “What about a mule? A mule couldn’t reproduce even
if it tried.”
12
If defining life is this difficult, no wonder we struggle so much
to understand how it arises from atoms. But even if we can’t fully
explain what life is, the emergence of music from vibrating
molecules can help describe what life is like. Consider what might
happen if you were to borrow Einstein’s violin, which is still
played in concert by his great-grandson Paul, and use it to perform
one of his favorite melodies, Mozart’s Sonata in E Minor, on the
dock at Knollwood.
Most of the atoms of this particular instrument were also here
during the 1940s, because atoms tend to persist in objects such as
violins longer than they do in more transient entities such as lakes
and musicians. But what exactly is the music that emerges from
your fingering and bowing of the strings?
The sounds themselves are short-lived waves of air molecules
striking your eardrums, and your perceptions of pitch and tone
emerge from waves of neuronal ions that trigger emergent sensory
and emotional responses in your brain. The melody itself,
however, is a metaphysical pattern that emerges from the process
of playing and, ultimately, from a lyrical thought in Mozart’s mind
in 1778. The emergent phenomenon of the Sonata in E Minor
outlasts any single performance or player, and it exists with or
without the instruments that embody it in sound or the scribblings
that transcribe it to paper.
Perhaps that is what you are most like, then: not the physical
instrument of your atoms but the unique pattern that emerges like
music from their interactions, an abstraction that is nonetheless
real. Perhaps you are like a living melody that successive
orchestras of atoms perform in the theater of your body until,
sooner or later, the concert series ends. Walt Whitman suggested
as much when he wrote:
February 2015
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
Like the sound of a sonata, like Mozart, Einstein, and
Whitman, you too will be gone someday. But like the abstract
structure of a musical composition, the space-time coordinates and
emergent patterns of your life are immortal, and your atomic and
subatomic components will continue to exist in many and varied
forms for trillions of years until even they must melt into the
silence of a dying universe. As Whitman concluded:
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
In the meantime, welcome to your atomic self. Hydrogen has
become you after billions of years of stellar fusion and countless
dances of atoms in air, water, earth, and fire on this planetary
vessel of ours. As you finish the rest of the story of your life, may
you share your matter and energy ever more wisely and well with
the universe.
Now take another breath, if you please, not only because you
must but, wonder of wonders, because you can.
Excerpted from Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements That
Connect You to Everything Else in the Universe, by Curt Stager.
Copyright 2014 by the author and reprinted by permission of
Thomas Dunne Books.
International Year of Light 2015 Available Posters!
All of the following posters (and even more!) can be downloaded on http://www.magic-of-light.org/iyl2015/download.php#
February 2015
13
2015 Club Calendar
Date
Event
Location
February 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Members’ Show & Tell
March 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Alfredo Petrov – “Pseudomorphs
– False Forms of Minerals”
April 8
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse & Elizabeth
Ellsworth (Artists) – “NYC is a Geologic Force”
May 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Renée Newman – “Exotic Gems
and the Jewelry Business Today”
June 10
Benefit Auction
July/August
TBD
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
October 7
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
December
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
Date
Event
Location
January 31
47th Annual Geology Museum
Open House
Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, New Jersey
Lectures, Mineral ID, Mineral Sale
Early February 2015
Tucson Shows
Tucson, Arizona
Temporary Mineral & Gem World Capital!
February 14-15
Capital District Gem, Mineral &
Fossil Show
New York State Museum, Empire
Plaza, Albany, NY
Contact: Michael Hawkins email
[email protected]
March 7-8
March 14-15
42nd Annual Gem, Mineral,
Jewelry & Fossil Show
Old Bethpage Village Exhibition
Hall, Old Bethpage, New York
Sponsored by the Island Rockhounds, Inc.
Info: www.islandrockhounds.org
March 14-15
North Jersey Gem, Mineral &
Fossil Show
Pope John II Center,
Clifton, New Jersey
Hosted by the North Jersey Mineralogical Society;
www.nojms.com
March 27-29
April 25-26
43rd Annual NJESA Gem &
Mineral Show
Franklin School, Washington Ave,
Franklin, New Jersey
For Information: Sterling Hill Mining Museum
(913) 209-7212
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 14-15
Fall New York City Gem,
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Next Meeting – Wednesday, February 11, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Activity: Members’ Showcase — “Show & Tell”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 3
March 11th Meeting:
Alfredo Petrov: “Marvelous
Pseudomorphs”
In mineralogy, a pseudomorph is a
mineral or mineral compound that appears
in an atypical form (crystal system),
resulting from a substitution process in
which the appearance and dimensions
remain constant, but the original mineral is
replaced by another. The name literally
means “false form”.
Collecting pseudomorphs is considered
a very sophisticated level of mineral
collecting. Well-known pseudomorphs
would include limonite after pyrite from
Utah and malachite after azurite from
Arizona.
Alfredo Petrov is a well-known
mineralogist, author and rare mineral
dealer, as well as a highly esteemed
member of the New York Mineralogical
Club. He is also a director of mindat.org,
where he is involved in maintaining the
accuracy and integrity of that website’s
data.
If you would like to know more about
Alfredo, just Google his name sometime
and you will see that he is all over the
mineralogical world!
(Continues on page 14)
Last Reminder! (Really)
says “2014”, you owe your 2015 dues. Please take
NYC, NY 10024-0077.
March 2015
Spring NYC Mineral & Gem
Show is March 7-8, 2015
By Mitch Portnoy
The annual Spring New York City
Gem & Mineral Show will take place on
March 7-8, 2015
(Saturday & Sunday)
at the Holiday Inn
Midtown Manhattan
(on 57th St. between
Ninth and Tenth
Avenues).
The New York
Mineralogical Club
will continue its biannual successful
partnership with the
sho w p r o mo t er ,
Excalibur Mineral
Corp. (Tony Nikischer, President), and host
this event. Tony, will ONLY be there as a
promoter and not have a retail booth as in
the past.
There is a discount ticket on the last
page of this bulletin. Email bulletin
recipients also received a PDF sheet of
these coupons that you can use yourself or,
even better, distribute to others!
A list of the diverse dealers that will
be selling their fine wares at the show can
be found on page 12. On that same page
you can also see the lecture schedule for the
show, one on each day of the show.
Since we have no direct commercial
interest in the show, we do ask each dealer,
however, for a donation to the Club’s
June Benefit Auction as a token of thanks
for all the work we do to help promote the
Show. These items tend to be the best lots
in the entire auction so please come and
patronize these top-quality dealers.
The Club’s booth will be in its regular
location (to the left as you enter the show).
There you can obtain a free souvenir card
(pictured on this page), a 2015 club meeting
calendar, or just say hi to your fellow
NYMC friends. We will decorate it with the
club’s many vinyl banners plus some of the
colorful posters created (and available for
sale) for this event.
The most important function of the
booth, except for directing the public to a
requested dealer, is to re-sign unrenewed
members and to try to attract new members.
In addition, we hope to raise some
money, mostly to
cover our show
expenses, by selling
various club
products and
publications such as:
(1) Note Card Sets
(2) CD-ROMs
(3)UN Light Year
Envelopes
(4) NYMC Posters
(5) The Limited
Edition NYMC
“Stamp Album”.
(6) Gemstone Pens.
We do ask that you remember a few
important things:
1. You can ask for discounts but be
reasonable – most of the dealers have
prices that are already more than fair;
2. You are a representative of the New
York Mineralogical Club. Please
conduct yourself accordingly.
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Serpentinite. . . . 3
Earth’s Deep History. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Earth’s Face Lift.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Earth’s Water/Interior. . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Earth’s Volcanos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Earth’s Hidden Mountains. . . . . . . . . 7
10 Commandments of Science. . . . . . 8
The 100: Manganite & Mica.. . . . . . 9
Topics in Gemology: Ametrine. . . . 10
Diamond Overgrading. . . . . . . . . . . 10
March 2015 Show Information. . . . 12
Advertisements.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
More on the “Needle”. . . . . . . . . . . 14
Naomi Sarna: Gems into Jewels. . . . 14
2
By Mitch Portnoy
The newest president of the EFMLS,
Merrill Dickinson, called me in early
February. I was a little concerned at first,
wondering what had I done wrong. But it
turns out he was proactively calling all the
presidents of the clubs in his federation
and asking a simple question – “How is
your club doing?”
I was pleased to tell him we were in
good shape. Why I had I said that?
Because our membership is stable and
active, our treasury at the highest level in
a decade and our meeting location
affordable and accessible. I went on to tell
him the details about our auctions,
bulletin, mineral shows, banquet, lectures,
donations, etc.
After apologizing to him if I seemed
to be bragging (I wasn’t – just stating the
facts!), we discussed the need for club and
federation officers to think outside the box
in order to function successfully in the
future and to deflect or even silence any
and all obstructionists.
I very much liked his spirit and will
likely support any and all of his initiatives
to modernize the Eastern Federation.
Upcoming Club Publications
A brief meeting of members and
officers after the February meeting
resulted in the decision to create a club
calendar for 2016, two new postcards, a
publication with short, illustrated member
biographies called Mineralography. A
new almanac will be planned for 2017. A
compilation of all the pop art style club
posters will be produced only as a CDROM.
Details on all the above will be
discussed and decided upon as a group
and ideas are, as always, welcome!
Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version
Electronic Storage
Club Saves Money
Go Green!
Requires
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional
February 11, 2015
Attendance: 33
Announcements:
Valentine graphics were featured
throughout the evening.
The “regular” raffle was held.
Mitchell Bogen’s death was
announced.
Expired members were encouraged to
pay their 2015 dues.
Mitch presented a visual tribute to
Albert Einstein in honor of the 100th
Anniversary of General Relativity.
The usual historical days, items for
sale, and upcoming club events and
meeting lectures were previewed.
The first of six “Minerals & Light”
games (IY Light 2015) was played.
A plate tectonics video was shown.
January’s “Special Sale” results were
reviewed as was Rutger’s Geology
Department’s Open House.
Special Event: “Members’ Showcase”
(Show and Tell)
The evening began with Eric
Rampello showing some of his prized
mineral slices, mostly tourmaline.
Sharon Fitzpatrick showed a huge
“desert rose” from Saudi Arabia.
Rich Rossi presented some of
interesting acquisitions from last year,
at times highlighting fluorescence and
other times rarity or beauty.
Susan Rudich caused a good deal of
jealously when she showed an amazing
find – a vintage Hermès mineral scarf!
After an interesting photo presentation
about gold panning in Honduras,
Jesus Sanchez passed around some
small gold nuggets as well as two
spectacular epidote specimens.
Leon Zakinov suggested we not get
too worried about radioactive minerals
or gems and even had an ekanite! He
also talked a bit about the Curies and
added information about luminescence.
Lenore Weber gave an overview
about the history, mineralogy,
aesthetics, uses and warnings about
charoite.
Vivien Gornitz treated us to a visual
comparison of Mars geology with that
of similar formations in the Southwest
USA.
Mitch Portnoy ended the evening with
a rapid overview of worldwide coins
with embedded gems accompanied by
the Money Song from Cabaret.
March 2015
Members in the News

Naomi Sarna was featured in an
online article (with 12 images) by
Anthony DeMarco entitled Naomi
Sarna Carves Gems Into Jewels on
January 1, 2015 (Forbes.com).
[Reproduced with permission on page
14. – Editor]
Robert Oppenheimer was the correct
“question” in a category about famous
quotations on the February 4, 2015
episode of Jeopardy.
Former member Ed Johnson appeared
on TV on February 8 talking about the
recent nesting of bald eagles on Staten
Island.
Oliver Sacks’ new memoir, On the
Move, will be published in early May.
Andrew Chait, Hedy Hartman and
Jeremy Hartman-Chait. . . . . . . NYC, NY
Jennifer Kim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
Kerry Yuen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
March Meeting : Light Game #2
Coming in April . . .
. . . And Coming in May
March 2015
3
Serpentinite: The Rock That Moves the Earth’s Plates
Serpentinites–rocks made up mostly of serpentine
minerals–have been used worldwide since antiquity, in
ceremonial and ornamental carvings, as building stones, and
even for railroad ballast. The asbestos form of serpentine (i.e.,
chrysotile) was formerly used extensively for thermal and
electrical insulation, but growing health concerns have curtailed
its use in recent years. However, serpentinites also play an
essential role in moving the Earth’s plates, thanks to their more
buoyant and mechanically-weak nature. They may even have
played an essential role in the early steps leading to the origin of
life.
The nature of serpentine
Serpentinites derive their name from serpentinus, the Latin
for “serpent”, because of their olive-green, slippery, smooth,
scaly appearance that derives from their basic structure. The
three most common serpentine mineral group minerals are
lizardite, chrysotile, and antigorite, with the approximate
formula: Mg3Si2O5(OH)4. Serpentines consist of sheets of linked
silica tetrahedra joined to sheets of magnesium hydroxide
octahedra by means of shared oxygen atoms. These double
layers are loosely held together by relatively weak, easily broken
hydrogen bonds, which explains their greasy feel and ability to
slide past each other like a deck of cards. But the tetrahedral and
octahedral parts of the layers do not fit completely well
together—a mismatch which sets up stresses in the crystal
structure. Lizardite relieves some of this atomic stress by
substituting some Al and Fe+3 for Mg+2 and Si+4, allowing its
layers to lie flat. On the other hand, in chrysotile, the layers curl
up into nanotubes or nanoscrolls, ultimately assuming the
familiar fibrous asbestos habit. The tubes possess five-fold
symmetry along an axis, making chrysotile a rare example of a
mineral quasi-crystal. Antigorite lies somewhere in between
these two extremes, creating curved, wavy layers resembling
tiles on Mediterranean roofs. These wavy reversals in antigorite
layers strengthens the bonds between layers, reducing the
otherwise well-developed cleavage and increasing the mineral’s
hardness compared with its two other relatives. These basic
elements of serpentine crystal structure account for their
mechanical properties –their ductile nature which enables other
stronger, stiffer rocks to slide past each other on major fault
zones along plate boundaries.
Serpentinites play an essential role in moving the Earth’s plates, thanks to their more buoyant and mechanically-weak nature. USGS image.
4
March 2015
Serpentinites and plate tectonics
such as serpentinites. The San
Ultramafic rocks, such as
Andreas Fault traverses many
peridotites, rich in olivine, or
outcrops of these dark-green
pyroxenites, consisting mainly of
rocks–members of the Franciscan
pyroxenes and olivine, constitute the
Complex, an assemblage of rocks
bulk of the Earth’s upper mantle.
with abundant serpentinites.
Serpentinites generally form by the
Serpentinites and early life
addition of water to olivine- and
The creation of serpentinites, as
pyroxene-rich ultramafic mantle
noted above, results in hydrogen gas,
rocks in which the magnesium-rich
magnetite, and also small amounts of
minerals—olivine and pyroxene—are Serpentinites form when seawater reacts with peridotite - Fe- and Ni-bearing sulfides and
replaced by hydrated, layered Mg rocks that form the Earth's mantle and have been brought up native metal alloys at fairly low
silicates.
to the seafloor by tectonic processes. This picture shows a temperatures, below around 350ºC
Penetration of cool seawater hand sample of a serpentinite recovered from the Atlantis (662ºF). The liberated H2 gas reacts
along fractures and grain boundaries Massif. Thin fractures in the serpentinite are filled with further with carbon dioxide in water
of olivine and pyroxene of exposed calcium carbonate. Sample is 16cm wide. Image courtesy of to form methane, CH4—a reaction
ultramafic rocks chemically alters G. Fruh-Green.
favored by the catalytic behavior of
these minerals to serpentines,
trace nickel-iron alloys. The
magnetite, brucite, and hydrogen gas. The ferrous (Fe2+) iron in
hydrogen and methane gases generated during serpentinization
olivine is also oxidized to the ferric (Fe3+ ) state, which winds up
can be utilized by certain microbial communities as a source of
mainly in magnetite, (Fe3O4), but also in lizardite. Serpentinites
energy for their metabolism. In the ocean, such chemosynthetic
occur on almost all continents and island arcs where tectonic
organisms that rely on chemical energy, rather than sunlight for
processes have brought these rocks close to the surface. The
photosynthesis as in plants, form the base of food chains that
serpentinization process occurs at very slowly-spreading midsustain other creatures, thereby establishing entire ecosystems at
ocean ridges, such as the mid-Atlantic, where outflows of
mid-ocean ridges, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and other
basaltic lavas are low, leaving mantle rocks uncovered.
submarine settings near serpentinite outcrops.
Serpentinites also develop along ocean
The early Earth, over 3 billion years
fractures and deep-sea trenches
ago, was much hotter and eruptions of
associated with subduction. A
ultramafic rocks on the surface were
descending slab of oceanic crust thrusts
more commonplace than today. Thus,
deeper mantle rocks upward on the
serpentinization must have also been
more widespread. The H2 and CH4
overlying side of the subduction zone,
permitting ocean water to infiltrate into
produced during serpentinization would
the ultram afic rocks, where
have provided basic “nutrients” for the
serpentinization proceeds. Water is also
life processes of many primitive
released by descending ocean sediments
organisms, even if these were not
which dehydrate at the higher
necessarily the original forms of life.
temperatures and pressures below. In
Serpentine has been identified in
sharp contrast, serpentinite belts at lofty
carbonaceous chondrites, a carbonaltitudes in mountain chains, such as the
bearing type of stony meteorite, and also
Alps or Apennines, denote the scars of
on the surface of Mars. Could the
relict mantle material, volcanic rocks,
presence of serpentine have created an
and oceanic cherts heaved upward during
early Martian environment more
the collision of two continental plates. Vintage Chinese green serpentine (NOT jade) bowl. hospitable for life’s beginnings there?
Movement of defects and
In summary, serpentinites are far
dislocations within the crystal lattice caused by tectonic stresses
more than just attractive ornamental rocks or useful building
is most readily accommodated along the basal planes of
stones. Their unique set of physical and chemical properties and
serpentine minerals (i.e., on planes parallel to the double-layered
their presence in a broad range of terrestrial environments signal
sheets of serpentine). Thus, when platy serpentine crystals are
their important geologic role and creation of hospitable habitats
largely lined up with their basal planes parallel to a fault surface,
for primitive microbial communities.
other rocks above and below the fault zone will slide with
Further reading
greater ease on the serpentinite bands. This greater ease of
Evans B.W., Hattori, K., and Baronnet, A., 2013. Serpentinite:
motion along relatively weak mineral surfaces, such as
What, why, where? Elements, 9:99-106.
serpentinites, accounts for movement along many strike-slip
Guillot, S. and Hattori, K., 2013. Serpentinites: Essential roles
faults, including the San Andreas Fault in California. During an
in geodynamics, arc volcanism, sustainable development,
earthquake, major strike-slip faults can move with unforeseen
and the origin of life. Elements, 9:95-98.
abruptness. In many cases, however, they also move
Hirth, G. and Guillot, S., 2013. Rheology and tectonic
aseismically, without producing significant earthquakes where
significance of serpentinite. Elements, 9:107-113.
rocks are under high fluid pressures, in areas of above average
McCollom, T.M. and Seewald, J.S., 2013. Serpentinites,
heat flow from within the Earth’s interior, or over weaker rocks
hydrogen, and life. Elements, 9:129-143.
March 2015
Earth’s “Deep History” Gets Major Rewrite
By David Freeman
5
when asteroids and comets pummeled the Earth, moon and inner
planets of the solar system, scientists report today (July 30) in the
journal Nature.
It may be time to rewrite geology textbooks.
Geologists say they’ve found evidence that oxygen-producing
life existed on Earth some 3.02 billion years ago–60 million years
earlier than previously thought.
“This is a very exciting finding, which helps to fill a gap in
our knowledge about the evolution of the early Earth,” Dr. Quentin
Crowley, an assistant professor in the School of Natural Sciences
at Trinity College Dublin and the senior author of a paper
describing the new finding, said in a written statement released by
the university.
By adding oxygen to our atmosphere, early life forms set the
stage for the evolution and proliferation of the more complex
multicellular life forms now seen on Earth.
The geologists–working with colleagues from Presidency
University in Kolkata, India–reached their conclusion after
analyzing ancient soil, or paleosol, collected in eastern India. The
analysis showed that the “chemical weathering” in the paleosol
indicated that the elevated oxygen levels were present earlier than
previously thought.
This artist’s impression depicts the surface of the early Earth covered by large
impact craters and liquid water.
Sample of 3.02-billion-year-old paleosol.
The weathering could only have come about via
photosynthesis, the researchers said. That’s the process by which
plants and certain organisms use light energy to convert carbon
dioxide into oxygen and water.
What kind of life forms produced the elevated oxygen levels
seen in the paleosol? Probably bacteria.
“Plants, even simple plants, did not evolve until much later in
the geological record,” Crowley told The Huffington Post in an
email, adding that the finding shows that “we are still learning
about ‘deep time’ and evolution of the early Earth system.”
A paper describing the research was published online in the
journal Geology on August 28, 2014.
Ancient Earth’s ‘Face-Lift’ In New Model
By Becky Oskin
Earth got a “face-lift” early in its history, wiping out most of
its original crust, according to a new model of the ancient barrage
of asteroids called the Late Heavy Bombardment.
Earth itself is about 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s rare to find
rocks older than those formed about 3.8 billion years ago. One
reason older rocks may be missing is that they were destroyed
“The surface of the Earth was heavily affected by all these
collisions,” said lead study author Simone Marchi, a planetary
scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder,
Colorado. “There’s no doubt the crust was excavated, mixed and
buried as a result of this bombardment.”
According to the model by Marchi and his co-authors, the
meteor storm resurfaced Earth’s outer crust and destroyed much of
the planet’s original rocks, similar to how a dermatologist’s
microdermabrasion wand buffs away skin, giving patients an
instant face-lift. They estimate that from one to four giant impacts
by bodies 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) across before 4.2 billion
years ago likely sterilized the planet, Marchi told Live Science.
And there were three to seven smaller impacts by bodies 310 miles
(500 km) across, which would have vaporized Earth’s ocean into
steam.
“If you look at this model, Earth only became habitable after
4.2 billion years ago,” Marchi said.
Because there is little evidence on Earth to constrain the
timing of such impacts, the researchers turned to the moon and to
meteorites. They looked at the distribution of craters on the moon,
and the age of collisions recorded in meteorites from asteroids
such as Vesta. The team also analyzed the presence of iron-loving
elements (the so-called highly siderophile elements), which hint at
the timing of collisions after the solar system formed.
“We now have a full model for the bombardment of the inner
solar system,” Marchi said.
The study not only pinned down the timing of the Late Heavy
Bombardment, it peered back into Earth’s past, looking at how
impacts reshaped the planet in the first 500 million years of its
history. The researchers suggest Earth’s cosmic crash-up was
punctuated in time and space, with asteroids and meteors hitting
the Earth in bursts, and the Late Heavy Bombardment that
pummeled the planet starting about 4.2 billion to 4.1 billion years
ago.
6
“This study makes a substantial contribution towards
understanding the conditions on the early Earth,” said Oleg
Abramov, a research space scientist with the U.S. Geological
Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, who
was not involved in the study. “Its findings are generally in good
agreement with previous estimates of crustal melting, ocean
vaporization and sterilization by impact bombardment. This creates
confidence that the scientific community is converging on an
understanding of how impacts have fundamentally reshaped the
early Earth.”
Windows in Time
Little of Earth’s original crust escaped unscathed, the new
model suggests. And that might explain another ancient Earth
puzzle. Some of the only survivors from this hellish early period,
known as the Hadean, are tiny minerals called zircons. The zircons
are like time capsules. The crystals are layered, with each layer
offering a window into a different geologic time period, all the way
back to when the zircons formed 4.4 billion years ago.
The chemistry preserved in the zircons suggests they formed
from rocks that were buried relatively deep in Earth’s crust, and
had contact with water. Marchi and his colleagues take these
chemical signals as evidence that the rocks forming the zircons
were buried by impacts. Other studies have suggested early plate
tectonics or volcanism buried the zircons’ parent rocks.
“These results pose an interesting idea,” said Aaron Cavosie,
a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, who was
not involved in the study. But there’s a crucial piece of evidence
for impacts missing from the geologic record, Cavosie said. No
one has yet found shocked zircons, which are crystals fractured by
the force of meteorite impacts on Earth.
“By the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment, the crust would
have contained a global distribution of shocked zircons; the new
model does not explain the absence of these grains,” Cavosie said.
“The absence of shocked Hadean grains remains a mystery.”
Source: AOL Science July 31, 2014
Water On Earth Is Way Older Than We Thought
Just how old is H2O? A fascinating new study suggests that
some of the water molecules we drink and bathe in are way old –
as in more than 4.6 billion years old.
That’s older than the solar system itself.
March 2015
scientist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C.,
said in a written statement, “which indicates that abundant,
organic-rich interstellar ices should probably be found in all young
planetary systems.”
Got that? The study suggests that since some of Earth’s water
came from interstellar space, it’s a good bet that water from
interstellar space may also exist in other planetary systems -- and
that says something about our search for extraterrestrial life.
“This is an important step forward in our quest to find out if
life exists on other planets,” study co-author Dr. Tim Harries, an
associate professor of astronomy at the University of Exeter in
England, said in a separate statement. “Consequently, it raises the
possibility that some exoplanets could house the right conditions,
and water resources, for life to evolve.”
The scientists reached their conclusion with the help of
computer models designed to simulate the evolution of a planetary
system that originally lacked deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen
that is found in some water molecules.
“With our simulations, we found that there wasn’t enough
energy to power the reactions to form the heavy water,” study
co-author Ilse Cleeves, a doctoral student in astronomy at the
University of Michigan, told The Huffington Post in an email.
In other words, the models indicated that levels of deuterium
now seen in Earth’s water are too high to have arisen after the
formation of the sun. So, some of the Earth’s water predates the
formation of the sun and the Earth and must have come from
interstellar space.
Dr. Karen Willacy, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory astrophysicist
who was not involved in this research, told Science magazine the
finding was an “interesting result. We’ve been debating this for
years, whether or not the ices have an interstellar heritage.”
The study was published online in the journal Science on
September 26, 2014.
Study Yields Surprise About Earth's Interior
By David Freeman
Maybe we were mistaken about Earth’s mantle, the layer of
our rocky planet that lies between its core and the thin crust on
which we live.
For years, earth scientists were convinced that the mantle’s
entire lower region–which stretches from 400 to 1,800 miles below
the surface–was composed of a particular structure of a mineral
known as ferromagnesian silicate perovskite.
Illustration showing the interior of the Earth. | D’ARCO EDITORI
An illustration of water in our solar system through time from before the sun’s
birth through the creation of the planets.
“Our findings show that a significant fraction of our solar
system’s water, the most-fundamental ingredient to fostering life,
is older than the sun,” study co-author Dr. Conel Alexander, a
But now a new study conducted at Argonne National
Laboratory in Illinois suggests that the extreme pressure and
temperature (more than 3,500º Fahrenheit) that exist about 1,200
miles below the surface cause the mineral to break into two distinct
phases.
One layer is nearly devoid of iron, according to a written
statement released by the lab. The other, called the H-phase, is full
of the stuff.
“We still don’t fully understand the chemistry of the
March 2015
H-phase,” the study’s lead author Dr. Li Zhang, a geophysicist at
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said in the statement. “But
this finding indicates that all geodynamic models need to be
reconsidered to take the H-phase into account. And there could be
even more unidentified phases down there in the lower mantle as
well, waiting to be identified.”
For the study, scientists shone powerful beams of X-rays at a
sample of ferromagnesian silicate held under extreme conditions
similar to those found deep underground, causing it to break up
and scatter in all directions. By analyzing data from the scatter, the
scientists were able to reconstruct how the atoms in the sample
were arranged.
There’s no direct link between the new finding and the
evolving science of earthquake prediction, Zhang told The
Huffington Post in an email. But according to Dr. Yue Meng,
another Carnegie geophysicist involved in the study, the finding
“may significantly alter the prevailing theory of the lower mantle.”
The study was published recently in the journal Science.
Source: Huffington Post August 29, 2014
Scientists Poke Huge Hole in Theory About
Volcanoes
By David Freeman
Have scientists had volcanoes all wrong?
A popular theory has it that, at least in certain types of
volcanos, eruptions occur when molten rock known as magma
gushes up from deep inside the earth via narrow jets known as
mantle plumes. But a new study of seismic data has identified one
very big hole in the theory:
Mantle plumes don’t exist.
“Mantle plumes have never had a sound physical or logical
basis,” study co-author Dr. Don L. Anderson, professor emeritus
of geophysics at Caltech in Pasadena, California, said in a written
statement released by the university. “They are akin to Rudyard
Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories,’ a reference to the British author’s tales
offering silly explanations for how giraffes and other animals got
their peculiar anatomies.”
This illustration shows the upper part of a volcano. Scientists have long hypothesized
that ‘pipes’ of molten rock (magma) extend to the Earth’s core, but new data suggest
they don’t actually exist.
Mantle plumes were first hypothesized in 1971 and widely
adopted among geologists around 1990, Anderson told The
Huffington Post in an email. But despite significant research
activity over the past couple of decades, the seismic data available
to researchers were too spotty either to prove or disprove the
existence of the plumes.
7
According to the new study–co-authored by Dr. James
Natland, a professor emeritus of marine geology and geophysics
at the University of Miami--robust new data and improved theory
show once and for all that those plumes are nowhere to be seen.
So if magma plumes aren’t sending molten rock to the surface,
how does it get there?
Via gigantic “chunks” of mantle that rise toward the Earth’s
surface, according to the new theory. These upwellings aren’t
narrow but can be thousands of kilometers across, Anderson said
in the email; as heat from inside the earth pushes them up, narrow
channels of cooler material called slabs sink.
“This is a simple demonstration that volcanoes are the result
of normal broad-scale convection and plate tectonics,” Anderson
said in the statement.
But if you’re thinking the new study might improve our ability
to predict when eruptions will occur, you’re in for a
disappointment.
The new research “does not have any connection to the timing
of volcanic eruptions,” Anderson said in the email. “It is an
important step to understanding how the Earth has cooled and
changed since its formation.”
The study was published online September 8, 2014, in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Thousands of Hidden Mountains Discovered
By Becky Oskin
A new topographic map of Earth’s mysterious ocean floor
reveals thousands of towering volcanoes, hidden gashes where
supercontinents ripped apart and other never-before-seen features
once veiled by miles of water and thick sediment.
The topography of Earth’s seafloor is as corrugated and
bumpy as a book set in Braille. By reading these peaks and ridges,
scientists can chronicle the birth of new ocean crust and the past
wanderings of Earth’s continents.
However, even though the seafloor carries the pivotal clues to
plate tectonics, the dry surface of Mars has been detailed more
clearly than the ocean’s watery depths.
The new map, released today (Oct. 2, 2014) in the journal
Science, promises to fill in some of the blanks. Compared with the
previous map, from 1997, the resolution is twice as accurate
overall and four times as better in coastal areas and the Arctic, said
lead study author David Sandwell, a marine geophysicist at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
Eyes in the Sky
As with the earlier 1997 map, scientists expect to improve
their knowledge of Earth’s geologic history based on new features
revealed by the map’s finer scale.
“I think these data are pretty important in terms of the details
that are going to come out,” Sandwell told Live Science.
The seafloor topography comes from a gravity model of the
ocean, which is in turn based on altimetry from the Jason-1 and
Cryosat-2 satellites.
Altimetry measures sea surface height from space by timing
how long it takes a radar signal to reflect off the ocean and return.
The ocean surface has subtle highs and lows that mimic both
seafloor topography and Earth’s gravity field.
“[These] results are a breakthrough in space-based marine
gravity observation,” Cheinway Hwang, who was not involved in
the study, wrote in a commentary accompanying the report. Hwang
is a professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu,
Taiwan.
Thousands of Volcanoes
The world’s volcano count jumped tremendously thanks to the
8
new map. The number of seamounts soared from around 5,000 to
about 20,000, Sandwell said. Seamounts are small, conical
volcanoes that are usually inactive or extinct. In the deep ocean,
tall seamounts attract a riot of marine life. The map captures all
seamounts more than 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers) tall.
March 2015
are a new thing,” Sandwell said. Analyzing such details around
each continent will improve reconstructions of past plate motions.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the researchers identified a defunct
spreading ridge now entombed under miles of sediment. The
spreading ridge opened the gulf about 150 million years, when the
Yucatan Peninsula pivoted counterclockwise from North America.
“Because of a major improvement in accuracy, this new
gravity field will lead to more discoveries of tectonic features,
especially in regions with thick sediments,” Hwang wrote.
Most of the new ridges, faults and volcanoes were
undiscovered because 80 percent of the ocean floor has never been
charted by ships. The new topography will improve depth
estimates in much of the ocean, the researchers said.
Source: Oct. 4, 2014 LiveScience
The Ten Commandments of Science
The seafloor map revealed 15,000 new seamounts.
Some of the new seamounts appear in linear chains, but many
do not. That suggests the volcanoes did not erupt above a mantle
plume, a blob of hot rock that rises from the deep mantle (the layer
under the crust). Some scientists think mantle plumes don’t exist,
but, as with climate change, the majority of researchers agree on
the concept but argue about the details.
Finding patterns in the newly identified seamounts may help
resolve the debate. “There’s a notion that many linear volcanic
chains aren’t formed by mantle plumes, and I agree with that,”
Sandwell said. “If we can map out their complete distribution, then
we can understand how they grow and evolve and so on.”
The motion of Earth’s tectonic plates created some of the most
distinct features visible on the seafloor. These include spreading
ridges and fracture zones, where the massive plates pull apart and
lava oozes to the surface. Plates are created at spreading ridges and
recycled at deep ocean trenches. The ocean trenches appear as
deep blue troughs in the gravity map.
“Even now, I’m just amazed by how simple seafloor spreading
patterns are,” Sandwell told Live Science. “They’re just like in the
textbooks. It’s just perfect plate tectonics.”
Behold, Earth’s Wrinkles
For the first time, the global seafloor topography captures the
abyssal hills, the most common surface feature on Earth, the study
reports. While the secrets of the origin are still debated, scientists
think a combination of faulting and volcanism at spreading ridges
creates the hills. The corrugated ridges and valleys cover up to 30
percent of Earth’s surface, by some estimates. “They’re the most
common landform on the planet, and I’m always amazed that
people have never heard of them,” Sandwell said.
Along coastlines, the data uncovered faults and fractures
buried under thick piles of mud and sand pouring off the
continents.
Sandwell and his colleagues highlighted the new details seen
in fracture zones that extend from South America to Africa. “We
can see these transform faults or fracture zones all the way up to
the continental margins that are currently buried by sediments, and
you couldn’t before,” Sandwell said. Though the two continents
seem to fit together like puzzle pieces, “squiggles” in the fractures
tell of tectonic complexity during their breakup, he added. “These
By David J. Eicher
A religious credo is a guideline for life, a suggestion of
purpose, and an imperative goal for humanity. Ten is a popular
number. Commandments are those principles that humans must
heed and follow. Commandments should be positive and
compelling rather than negative and prohibiting. They are
prescriptions of natural law as applied to religious humanism.
Why, though, should science not also have its ten commandments?
Here is the current set of commandments through the eyes of
science, in the form of objective, natural theories that should be
believed:
1. Conservation theory: Energy and mass may be neither created
nor destroyed but may be interconverted. Thus, creation and final
destruction are not relevant.
Conversion: e = mc2 Annihilation: e- + e+ ÷ E
2. Entropy theory: Entropy increases spontaneously. Nature is
being dissipated. Improvements, syntheses, organization, and
growth require energy at the expense of the environment.
3. Quantum theory: Activity is the product of energy and time.
h = Et
4. Radiation theory: Disintegration of mass is a first-order
reaction. Fission applies mostly to large atoms, while fusion
applies mostly to small atoms.
5. Particle theory: Particles with mass (such as electrons, protons,
and neutrons) give rise to atoms (such as hydrogen, oxygen, and
carbon), which give rise to molecules (such as water, quartz, and
DNA), which give rise to chemical systems (such as minerals,
plants, and animals), which give rise to the universe of objects
(such as planets, stars, and galaxies).
6. Evolution theory: Combinations of the kinetic molecular
theory, the chirality principle, and the laws of genetics lead to life
and the development of species with both inheritance and
variation, due to heredity and mutation.
7. Relativity theory: The notion of space-time (simultaneous,
consecutive, and complementary events) is defined from the
perspective of the observer.
8. Psychological theory: Respect for nature, especially for life, is
mandated.
9. Behavior theory: There is satisfaction to be had in helping
others toward happiness, which is usually reciprocal in bringing
happiness in return. Personal immortality is achieved by the views
of others.
10. Ethical theory: For a worthwhile existence, we must strive to
maximize freedom with responsibility and find fulfillment with
peace and love.
Source: Huffington Post Science September 5, 2014
March 2015
9
once produced a 10 by 15 foot crystal – probably too big for most
Manganite & Mica
of us! Yet, I do not see specimens from here offered for sale in the
What an unlikely combo! Manganite has 720 localities and
marketplace. Wonderful cabinet specimens are known to occur
muscovite (a mica) has 12,342. We can consider also the fact that
with topaz, garnet and beryl - recently Pakistan has been a good
manganite is, in a fine specimen, one of the most valuable among
source. Lepidolite, currently properly called trilithionite or
the “100” while mica – well it’s so common and yet a fine
polylithionite, has the distinction of being used as a lapidary
specimen may bring only a modest price anyway.
material, especially when it is granular in texture. Brazilian
Perhaps German specimens of manganite can be labeled as the
localities have produced fantastic specimens; a few are thick, dark
best known from any locality to date. Locality data may indicate
purple cleavages which are essentially transparent and may remind
Ilfeld or simply the Harz mountains – both in Germany. While nice
you of kunzite! Very thin muscovite plates can serve as windows
specimens occur from Nova Scotia, Cornwall, England, and
(and once did) or portholes in a wood stove. A variety of other
Negaunee, Michigan, none outclass the Harz clusters. This hydrous
uses can be rapidly found on the internet. Thinly peeled and
species [MnO(OH)] is indicative of low temperature deposits and
positioned between polarized film, mica can present a wonderful
ordinary associates include calcite, siderite and sometimes barite.
array of colors. Bear in mind that we only dealt with a few true
It is not uncommon for manganite to be found partially or
micas and there are the brittle micas – you can investigate them on
completely altered to pyrolusite. From the perspective of some
your own via a textbook or the Internet.
collectors, it is not particularly desirable because of its color. The
curse of some minerals is that they are black or white, this one is
black. A really good general collection would almost certainly
Agates and Atemporality in MoMA
contain at least one example of German manganite. The name,
By Anna Schumate
being similar to manganese (an element) tells us where the name
The Museum of Modern Art’s special exhibition “The Forever
comes from and hints at the chemical composition like at least 15
Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World” presents 17
other species beginning with mangan or incorporating the term in
contemporary artists who have created their interpretations of “athe species name. The name, being similar to manganese (an
temporality.” MoMA credits science fiction writer William Gibson
element) tells us where the name comes from and hints at the
with the term, which for the art world means a plane where all
chemical composition like at least 20 other species beginning with
styles and periods co-exist in the digital landscape.
mangan or incorporating the term in the species name. Blackburn
and Dennon (1997) tell us the type locality is Ilfeld.
Mica is a term referring to a lot of similar species; muscovite
is one of the most common members and should be familiar to
most mineral collectors. The name means to shine and is based on
the Greek word; indeed, tiny pieces on a mine dump or composing
part of a rock do appear to shine. Fortunately, we find several
species in the mica group are well-represented in our general area.
My agate reference refers to a glass and steel installation
Lepidolite, now not accepted as a proper species, is found in some
entitled Sigi’s Erben (Sigi’s Heritage) 2012 by Kerstin Brätsch.
pegmatites in New England. The purple color makes for attractive
The work comprises antique style glass, luster enamel, black
specimens; often found associated with quartz, tourmaline,
pigment, float glass*, agates and powder-coated steel. An homage
spodumene and numerous other species. Phlogopite, a mica that is
to the German painter, Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) the piece was
often brownish, is well-known from upstate New York and
created in collaboration with Urs Rickenbach, the glass maker who
elsewhere. Muscovite will be apparent in some metamorphic
worked with Polke on his design for the windows of Zurich’s
rocks, even in Central Park. Very large crystals are found in
Grossmünster Cathedral features scraps of thinly sliced agates left
pegmatites in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine. Biotite,
over from their project.
also currently not a proper species, can appear to be nearly black
The agates are attached to panels of clear float glass,
and will be encountered often enough – sometimes we find
interspersed with panels of colored “Goethe” glass that is
cleavages with biotite surrounding muscovite – they are, in my
manufactured to resemble stained glass from the Middle Ages.
opinion, both interesting and collectible items. We investigated a
Collaboration is a significant part of Brätsch’s philosophy. She
massive quartz outcrop in Arizona where large muscovite crystals,
also worked with designer GianCarlo Montebello to create the
black tourmaline and feldspar were all found together. Certain
steel structure for Sigi’s Erben. One of the glass paintings in the
tourmalines here are partially to totally replaced by muscovite and
work is signed “KAYA,” the name of her ongoing partnership with
it has a faint green tinge in some examples.
the artist Debo Eilers.
Currently, based on Back (2014) there are nearly 50 micas. He
Kerstin Brätsch’s work provoked my curiosity after my initial
divides them into true micas, either dioctahedral or trioctahedral,
attraction to the agates, which are arranged in abstract groups,
and brittle micas which are divided the same way. Muscovite is a
although one panel strongly resembles a dancing figure.
true mica, it is dioctahedral. All others, whether accepted currently
MoMA is open to the public free of charge on Fridays from
or not mentioned here are trioctahedral true micas. See Back for
4:00 PM. The exhibit runs through April 5.
the details.
*Float glass is made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal, now
typically tin, although lead and other alloys that melt at lower temperatures have
Classic specimens, such as “ball” mica are muscovite and
been used in the past. This method produces uniform thickness and very flat
Branchville, Connecticut is but one locality for this material. Brazil
surfaces.
has and still does yield fine specimens for collectors while India
10
March 2015
Topics in Gemology
More Than Just a Pretty Facet
The trait that makes colored gemstones so appealing is their
storytelling opportunity. Most of them are sourced in remote
parts of the world, often at great peril to the gem hunter. Political
hot-spots and treacherous accessibility near mining regions
contribute to the overall risky climate involved with their harvest.
Such is the situation with the glamorous bicolor ametrine
quartz. Gem fans love yellow. But they like purple too. Having
both colors on the same stone doubles its appeal. Yellow quartz
is citrine, while purple quartz is called amethyst. Each of these
crystal varieties individually are often found in the same location.
The secret to the bicolor miracle formation lays in differing
oxidation states within the crystal. While the crystal is being
formed, temperature variations across the crystal will produce
this two toned wonder.
showy piece. But Dyer thought outside the box, actually way
outside the universe, when he made his ametrine design. “It is
my Nebula™ cut,” Dyer explains, “named for the clouds in
space which often appear in spiral form. They are exceptionally
beautiful in photographs coming from the Hubble telescope.”
Dyer drew his initial inspiration for the particular cut from
the shape of the rough, he says, exploiting “the natural bicolor
in the rough that divides it nicely down the middle.”
Working with the stone’s distinct color separations, Dyer
explains “This allowed me to locate the center and the division
of the double swirl pattern right at the junction of the two
colors. The effect was achieved using carefully placed carved
bubbles and micro grooves combined with smooth polished
surfaces that could be termed as a “convex facet” along with a
buff top style crown.’
Your customers want a great story so they can become
devoted to their gemstone of choice. Bolivian ametrine provides
that element of intrigue and dazzling visual appeal. Add an
extra layer of attraction from creative cuts from artists like Dyer
and the stone becomes a magnet for collectors.
Special Report: Honest Diamond Grading
Rapaport Calls for End to Over-Grading
Cites Threat to Industry. Calls for Full Disclosure to
Consumers.
Award-Winning 67.92 ct Nebula™ Cut Untreated Bolivian Ametrine by John Dyer
Distinct geology plays a big role in mineral formation.
Bolivia produces the world’s entire supply of ametrine, (also
called bolivianite) from a southeastern locale – the Anahi mine.
The precise terrain with its dolomitic limestone creates the
perfect storm for multi-color occurrences in the same crystal.
That’s all well and good for rock hounds and mineralogists,
but collectors crave more romantic folk-lore from gemstones
found eons before modern jewelry lovers laid hold of them.
Ametrine delivers on that count.
Local legends claim the Anahi mine had been known since
the 17th century when a lucky Spanish conquistador snagged the
mine as a dowry by marrying a tribal princess. The conquistador
– groom later introduced the bicolor treat to the Spanish Queen
upon his return to Europe.
Commercially, this mine has only been in operation since the
late 20th century however. And that’s just fine with modern day
fans and imaginative gem artists.
Celebrated gemstone cutter John Dyer’s exciting Nebula™
cut Bolivian ametrine took 2nd Place in Innovative Faceting at
AGTA’s 2015 Cutting Edge Awards. Sharing his viewpoint Dyer
remarked, ‘It is the probably the coolest of the gems of mine that
won . . . this one has a very unusual look.”
Ametrine’s unique bicolor appearance already makes for a
Martin Rapaport has released a comprehensive editorial
entitled “Honest Grading” that discloses the systematic
over-grading of over one hundred thousand diamonds, valued
at more than a billion dollars. Rapaport calls upon the legitimate
jewelry trade to reject those selling over-graded diamonds that
fool consumers into believing they are getting better diamonds
than they are receiving.
The article declares that it is an unfair trade practice to
grade diamonds using Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
grading terminology while applying alternative standards that
overgrade the diamonds. It insists that suppliers be held
responsible for what they sell and provide full refunds in the
event that diamonds re-graded by the GIA are more than one
color or one clarity below the grade indicated when sold.
“The Rapaport Group is opposed to the misrepresentation
of diamond quality. The over-grading of diamonds is an unfair
practice that hurts consumers as it destroys the legitimacy of the
diamond trade.
“Retailers who sell over-graded diamonds with GIA
terminology and non-GIA grading standards are at great risk.
When consumers try to re-sell their diamonds or send them to
the GIA for re-grading and discover significant quality
differences, there will be hell to pay.
“Consumers must be warned not to trust misleading
diamond grading reports and those that sell them. Suppliers
must be held responsible for the quality of the diamonds they
sell. The diamond trade must prioritize the protection of
consumers above profits,” said Martin Rapaport, Chairman of
the Rapaport Group.
[Members who receive their Bulletins electronically received a
PDF of the full article on this topic by Rapaport.– Editor]
March 2015
11
Please Send in Your
Forget
To Pay Your Dues!
And get yourself a set or two of note cards — they make great gifts!
Name (s)
Street Address
City
Home Phone
State
Work Phone
Zip
E-mail
PLEASE!
G Thin Sections G Mineral Bookplates G Jade G Native Elements G Crystallography G Ruby G Tourmaline
G Amber
with your check to:
12
Spring 2015 Show Dealer Roster
March 2015
Many Note Cards Available for Sale!
(Subject to change)
1
New York Mineralogical Club, Inc., New York City
2
Amazon Imports, Williston Park, New York
3
AYS International, Floral Park, New York
4
Bary Gems, Hollis, New York
5
John Betts Fine Minerals, New York City, New York
6
China South Seas, Inc., New York City, New York
7
Crystal Circle, Cincinnati, Ohio
8
Garriti Gems & Lapidary, New York City
9
Gems Art Studio, Brooklyn & Moscow
10
Highland Rock & Fossil, Highland Park, New Jersey
11
Khyber Gemstones, Lyndhurst, New York
12
Mahalo Minerals, Takoma Park, Maryland
13
Malachite & Gems of Africa, Rochester, New York
14
Alfredo Petrov Rare Minerals, Desert Hot Springs, California
15
Raj Minerals, Jersey City, New Jersey
16
Rocko Minerals, Margaretville, New York
(Above is one example of 30 sets from which to choose!)
And Also Probably . . .
Aurora Mineral Corp, Freeport, New York
Exotic Russian Minerals, Moscow, Russia
Spring 2015 Show Saturday Evening Dinner
Date: March 7, 2015 (Saturday Evening)
Place: Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan (Show locale)
Time: 6:30
Cost: $25 each (wine donation happily accepted!)
Attire: INFORMAL
All members, family, friends, & dealers are invited!
Dinner will include salad, entree, dessert, breads and beverage.
Entree will be a choice of either chicken, fish or beef (subject to
change).
Although reservations and payments can be accepted on the day
of the dinner at the show, it would be incredibly helpful if you
could RSVP to either Diane or Mitch if you intend to come to
this event. (Phone numbers and/or email addresses can be found
on the last page of the Bulletin.)
Payments can be sent in advance to the club mailbox or given
directly to us at the Club booth during the Show.
Margola Corp, Englewood, New Jersey
17
Howard Schlansker, Marshfield, MA (Wholesale Only)
Show Lecture Titles & Schedule
Commemorative Booth Banner
Free Color Show Souvenir Card!
March 2015
Children’s Free Minerals and Activity!
Floaty Gemstone Pens
12 different gemstones available!
13
14
March 2015
More on the “Needle”
Naomi Sarna Carves Gems Into Jewels
Great article (last month) by Kate (Briquelet) on Cleopatra’s
Needle. I was very fortunate to visit the needle at the same time
that Bob Brier and others were also visiting. When the
scaffolding was originally erected the conservators notice
something that was not apparent from ground level or not
illustrated in drawing of the
needle. As they examined the
surface they noticed a dark line
near the tip of the needle. The
timing of my visit was fortunate in
that an attempt was made to
examine the dark line more
closely. It turns out, that the tip
was broken during movement in
Alexandria (as far as I can tell, it
was only mentioned once) and was
refastened. All the participants
took turns twisting and jiggling the
tip until it began to move and turn.
When the tip was originally
broken it was repaired and screwed on to the rest of the obelisk.
It will be interesting to read the final report on the conservators
efforts to clean and repair the obelisk.
Sidney Horenstein
P.S. Of course, there are older artifacts in the AMNH, MMOA,
Brooklyn Museum, etc.
By Anthony DeMarco
Gem carving is a craft that takes most people decades to
perfect. Somehow, Naomi Sarna has become a world-class gem
carver in about five years. Her carvings and jewelry made from her
gems and pearls have won numerous Spectrum Awards,
considered by many to be the most respected and prestigious
creative awards for the jewelry design industry.
This year alone, she took honors in the competition sponsored
by the American Gem Trade Association for “Best Use of Pearls,”
for an 18k rose gold necklace with white cultured pearls accented
with pink diamonds; Platinum Honors for Men’s Wear for her “His
and His” rings featuring brown natural diamonds; and First Place
for Gem Carving for her “Rose de France” 1,015-carat amethyst
carving.
Sarna became successful enough in other businesses to have
the financial freedom to dive full-time into gem carving and
jewelry design. This and her longtime love of art and design is
what she credits for her fast rise. As an art student she said she was
fascinated by drapery in classical sculpture and Renaissance
painting.
“I like to incorporate this love of the flow of fabric into my
gem carvings and set pieces,” she said. “I think of my pieces as
more than sculpture; the carving of the gem is only one part of the
vision. The gem in its setting must also be in balance because there
is a harmony between the jewel and the wearer. I enjoy the
challenge of finding that balance and harmony.”
Sarna treats her pearl jewelry differently. Whether using
natural or cultured pearls, she will leave them in their original
shape, although she often uses unusual-shaped pearls.
Her work has taken her to many places including Tanzania,
where she teaches the local Maasai people how to make jewelry.
She does this in collaboration with TanzaniteOne, the largest and
only commercial company that mines Tanzanite from the world’s
only known source of the precious gem. Other mines in this region
are set aside for artisanal miners from the local area.
Her first time there she gave them 30 pliers so they create
jewelry with wire. “I held them (the pliers) up and asked does
anybody know what these are? They have never seen pliers before.
I taught them how to do this. I knew they would be able to do it
because they do fantastic bead work so I knew they would be able
pick this up very quickly.”
She adds, “It was love at first sight.”
On her return trips she bought basic items like pencils and
sunglasses.
One of her Tanzanite carvings, the 275-carat “L’Heure Bleu”
mounted on a silver base serves as a special fund raiser for the
Maasai. The cost of the piece includes a trip for four to Tanzania.
“The mine gave me this crystal to carve and the sale of this
crystal, which is pretty expensive, will include a trip for four
people to Tanzania, go to a wonderful safari, and they’ll also get
to meet the Maasai ladies and their families and go down to the
mine. Most importantly, it will benefit people who are
impoverished.”
Sarna works with a variety of gems but some of her other
favorites includes opal and topaz.
Her brooches and rings are designed to fit properly so when
they settle into place, it has the proper appearance.
“You know how rings flop over to the side,” she said. “Mine
are designed to go over to the side right away. The way I designed
the shank it has to go over this way. It becomes a part of your
hand.”
Alfredo Petrov Talk: “Marvelous Pseudomorphs”
(Continued from page 1)
In addition, he is one of the most popular speakers at
mineral clubs throughout the United States, not just the NYMC.
In the past he has regaled us on topics ranging from the
minerals of Bolivia, to mineral collecting on volcanic islands,
to burning sulfates, to an overview of Japanese jade.
Alfredo is one the most popular, interesting, and verbally
gifted speakers in captivity.
Come hear his talk at the next meeting and learn something
while at the same time being entertained and amused.
[A special set of note cards on the theme of pseudomorphs will
be available for sale at this meeting. – Editor]
March 2015
15
2015 Club Calendar
Date
Event
Location
March 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
“Pseudomorphs – False Forms of Minerals”
April 8
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse & Elizabeth
Ellsworth – “NYC is a Geologic Force”
May 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
June 10
Benefit Auction
July/August
TBD
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
October 7
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Fluorescence ( H. Heitner ) &
IYL Special Demo ( R. Bostwick )
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
Date
Event
Location
March 7-8
March 14-15
42nd Annual Gem, Mineral,
Old Bethpage Village Exhibition Hall,
Old Bethpage, New York
Sponsored by the Island Rockhounds, Inc.
Info: www.islandrockhounds.org
March 14-15
North Jersey Gem, Mineral &
Fossil Show
Pope John II Center,
Clifton, New Jersey
Hosted by the North Jersey Mineralogical Society;
www.nojms.com
March 27-29
April 10-12
NY / NJ Gem Mineral, Jewelry
& Fossil Show
NJ Convention & Expo Center,
Edison, New Jersey
Minerals, Crystals, Gemstones, Beads, Fossils,
Metaphysical Accouterments, Decor Items
April 23-26
42nd Annual Rochester
Mineralogical Symposium
Radisson Hotel Rochester Airport,
Rochester, NY
Lectures, Exhibits, Dealers, Presentations, Auctions,
Banquet, etc.
April 25-26
Mineral Show
(913) 209-7212
May 16-17
Celinka Gem & Mineral Show
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Patchogue
17+ dealers; Info: Elaine Casani (631-567-3342)
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 14-15
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Next Meeting – Wednesday, March 11, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: Alfredo Petrov — “Marvelous Pseudomorphs”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 4
April 8th Meeting:
Jamie Kruse: “New York City is a
Geologic Force”
New York City’s architecture and
infrastructure depends upon extractions of
geologic materials that took millennia to
form. Yet, we have virtually no cultural
awareness of this reality. Some people
argue that this is because humans are
cognitively incapable of imagining deep
time. Jamie Kruse (and her partner,
Elizabeth Ellsworth) disagree. They, in
fact, offer a speculative tool that we can
use to project our imaginations into deep
time as we move through the City. They
believe that as works made in response to
geologic time become more common, our
capacity to design, imagine, and live in
relation to deep time will expand.
Geologic City: a Field Guide to the
GeoArchitecture of New York takes you
to 20 sites where you can sense the
geologic pulse of the City. With the field
guide in hand, residents and visitors are
able to interact with both unfamiliar and
iconic New York architecture and
infrastructure in unexpected ways: by
sensing for themselves the forces and
flows of geologic material that give form
to the built environment of the City.
Jamie Kruse is an artist, designer and
part-time faculty at Parsons, The New
School for Design (New York, NY). In
2005 she co-founded smudge studio, with
Elizabeth Ellsworth, based in Brooklyn,
NY. Her work has been supported by the
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies
in the Fine Arts, The New School Green
Fund; New York State Council for the
Arts and the Brooklyn Arts Council. She
has exhibited and presented her work both
nationally and internationally.
website: http://smudgestudio.org
April 2015
Highlights of the Spring
2015 New York City Gem,
Mineral & Jewelry Show
By Mitch Portnoy
The Spring New York City Mineral &
Gem Show was held on March 7-8, 2015
at the Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, its
standard location. The preceding weeks of
terrible weather finally abated, allowing a
good show for all concerned. Here are
some of the highlights:
The booth setup (and later, break
down) was easy (our minimalist approach
continues). The posters and banners
decorating our area was inviting and
visually engaging. The usual club and
show information flyers were available to
the public as well as postcards, calendars,
old bulletins, etc.
Attendance was brisk and constant.
There was NEVER a time when it was not
busy from the opening bell on Saturday to
the closing announcements on Sunday.
We have no direct financial interests
in the show. Tony (Nikischer – Excalibur
Minerals) gives us a valuable booth space
(free) in exchange for show support. We
sell some mineral/gem/club-related
materials to help defray our show
expenses.
The floaty gemstone pens sold VERY
well. Indeed, we have only five left! The
note card sets remain popular as do the
educational CD-ROMS. We may need to
come up with some new items that we can
legitimately sell to help defray our show
expenses.
Every dealer made a contribution to
the club and you can see the list in next
month’s bulletin. Most of these special
items will be offered to members at the
June Benefit Auction although the
garnet-related specimens and jewelry will
be made a special part of the silent auction
at the October Banquet which has a garnet
theme this year.
We enrolled six new enthusiastic
members at this show. These new
members were given many welcoming
gifts as well as having a choice of a
splendid mineral donated by Tony
Nikischer specifically for this function.
Renewal of now-expired members was
not, however, very strong this year, alas!
The gemstone carving demonstration,
given by Naomi Sarna, with the assistance
of her grandchildren Luca and Enzo, was
a standing-room-only affair!! Her
imparting of information was so
compelling, nobody left the lecture room
even though the talk went more than the
usual hour. Tremendous thanks to her!
There was a noticeable number of
children at the show. They seemed to be
quite enthusiastic about getting some free
minerals or playing the mineral ID game.
The Saturday evening dinner was fun
and intimate, with 13 members and friends
attending. There was lots of wine for us
all!
I want to finally thank Rich Rossi,
Anna Schumate, Diane Beckman, Vivien
Gornitz and Mark Kucera for their support
and work before, during and after the
show.
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Nanominerals I. . 3
Sandstone Arches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
In Defense of Science.. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Dirty-Sounding Geologic Words. . . . 5
Peanut Butter Diamonds.. . . . . . . . . . 6
Another Mars Rock Debate. . . . . . . . 7
Dark Matter Evidence?.. . . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: Sulfides of Iron. . . . . . . . . . 8
Topics in Gemology: Opal. . . . . . . . . 9
30,000 Diamonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Asbestos vs. Fiber Basalt. . . . . . . . . 10
Not Seeing the Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A Geologist’s Manhattan. . . . . . . . . 13
Greetings from Namibia. . . . . . . . . . 14
2
By Mitch Portnoy
I hope those of you who made it to the
Spring NYC Gem & Mineral Show had
an enjoyable time and that you found some
wonderful items to add to your collection.
Perhaps you could bring in a favorite and
share it with us at the next meeting, when
we discuss how the show went overall.
For a few years now I have been
“honoring” the topic of April Fool by
placing relevant mineral/gem/geology
jokes and cartoons throughout the April
Bulletin. I hope you enjoy them!
This “April Fool” motif will even
continue at the next meeting. I will quickly
run a Fun Periodic Tables Presentation!
See you soon!
April Meeting Special Show
April Meeting: Light Game #3
March 11, 2015
Attendance: 40
Announcements:
New members and guests were
welcomed and the monthly raffle held.
A recent video about Oliver Sacks was
played.
The usual meeting historical notes were
presented.
Both a game about grey minerals
(relating to Alfredo Petrov) and a game
about asterism in gems (relating to the
IYL) were played.
The Spring 2015 NYC Mineral Show
reviewed and the Fall 2015 NYC
Mineral Show previewed.
The items available for sale were listed
and an overview of the Club’s
upcoming special publications
presented.
Upcoming Club events were
previewed.
The New York State patch with the
Club Subway garnet was shown.
Marvelous Pseudomorphs
The adventurous traveler can unearth
many unusual mineral finds by wandering
around the by-roads of Bolivia, from desert
badlands to the high Altiplano. Alfredo
Petrov, mineralogist, dealer, and Club
member regaled us with tales of his search
for strange pseudomorphs in remote corners
of Bolivia, Japan, and elsewhere.
April 2015
Century Jewelry Design) and Gail Brett
Levine (Jewelry Design History).
Naomi Sarna is a Cover Girl!
Donna Dempsey. . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
Nicholas Groschen. . . . . Forest Hills, NY
Erica Hirsch. . . . . . . . . . Ocean Grove, NJ
Ashley Moy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
Ethel Murray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
James Peach.. . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn, NY
Coming in May . . .
Members in the News

Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version
Electronic Storage
Club Saves Money
Go Green!
Requires
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional

Elise A. Skalwold, who lectured to us
last year about “The Edward Arthur
Metzger Gem Collection of Cornell
University,” received a Friends of
Mineralogy Award for Best Article
published in 2014 in Rocks & Minerals
(co-authored with John I. Koivula) for
the article entitled Microworld of
Diamonds: Images from Earth's
Mantle.
Oliver Sacks was an Op-Ed
Contributor to the New York Times on
February 19, 2015 with a beautiful
piece entitled My Own Life on learning
he has terminal cancer.
Many members participated in the
Jewelry History Series held before the
Miami Beach Antiques Show in late
January including Eric Hoffman
(Jade), Elyse Zorn Karlin (20th
. . . And Coming in June!
April 2015
3
Part I: Nanominerals—A Journey Into the Ultra-Tiny
Imagine bio-robots smaller than the most minuscule viruses!
In the sci-fi thriller “Nano”, by Robin Cook, surreptitious activities
take place within a top-secret hi-tech company where nano-sized
robotic microbes have been bioengineered
to cure disease, or … possibly kill off
opponents. The potential benefits and
even scarier dangers of nanotechnology
are endless. Setting aside the natural or
manufactured nanobiosphere,
nanominerals are ubiquitous throughout
the Earth. They occur as tiny sheets, rods,
or particles in a size range between 1 and
tens of nanometers (1 nanometer = one
billionth of a meter). Regardless of how
they form, whether through primary crystallization, or
biomineralization, all minerals pass through an early nano-sized
stage, before growing larger to micro- or macroscopic dimensions.
But in certain cases, for instance where multiple crystallites form,
yet growth rates are slow, single nanocrystals may persist. More
commonly, many other processes, such as weathering, create nanosized mineral particles. Common examples include iron and
manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides. Welcome to the world of
nanominerals!
Size Matters
Nanominerals and nano-sized mineral particles are widely
distributed in soils, rivers, groundwater, oceans, and atmosphere;
even on or in living organisms. In nanominerals, a high proportion
of atoms or molecules are exposed on surfaces. The surface
exposure to a sharply different atomic environment strongly
influences the subsequent behavior of nanoparticles. Thus, mineral
nanoparticles may often differ in physical and chemical properties
from their larger-sized counterparts. For example, nanocrystals
may possess structurally disordered, variably ordered, and strained
surfaces, which can extend into the interior, causing variations in
crystal structure. Edges and corners of nanocrystallites experience
a greater proportion of bonding deficiencies than on flat surfaces;
thus, well-defined crystal faces cannot develop below a critical
size. The abundance of multiple atomic dislocations and stacking
faults in nanocrystal lattices create potential instability. While
dislocations can migrate to the surface and be eliminated, they are
often trapped at nano-grain boundaries. These myriad defects make
nanocrystals much stiffer, less compressible, and harder (a fact
exploited in nanodiamonds, see Part II, next month). They also
induce a greater ability to incorporate impurities. Furthermore,
these differences affect chemical reactivity and solubility. (In
general, the smaller the particle size, the more soluble).
Chemical reactions between solutions and minerals take place
on crystal surfaces at the nano-scale. In many cases, as the surface
layers dissolve, the replacing atoms or ions closely match the
lattice dimensions of the dissolving host mineral (i.e., epitaxy),
leading to pseudomorphic replacement. In other cases, dissolution
creates pores or spaces into which the new atoms fit. The tight hold
of oxygen atoms on hydrogen ions at corners and edges makes
nanoparticles more alkaline, altering the exchange rate of H+ ions
in acid-base reactions.
Nanoparticles in Earth Processes
Crystallization of minerals from the melt, in solution, or
directly from the vapor stage begins with the assemblage of atoms,
ions, or molecules into a few nano-sized unit cells, before growing
to microscopic or larger dimensions. Nanominerals and particles
play an important role on the Earth’s surface as well. Weathering
of minerals involves chemical reactions
between exposed mineral surfaces and
solutions containing rainwater, dissolved
carbon dioxide, metal ions, and
nanomineral particles. The latter particles,
by virtue of their tiny size, facilitate
chemical reactivity. Iron and manganese
oxides and oxyhydroxides, derived from
the weathering of iron and manganese in
igneous, and metamorphic silicate
minerals, are widespread at the Earth’s
surface, incorporated into sedimentary
rocks, soils, or suspended as colloidal particles in rivers and
oceans. Their presence splashes surface rocks with a wide
spectrum of colors ranging from bright yellows, to ochre, rust red,
vivid vermilion, maroon, dark brown, to black desert varnish.
Less appreciated is the influential role of iron for oceanic life.
Iron is a critical nutrient for ocean phytoplankton (microscopic
single-celled photosynthesizing organisms, such as diatoms and
coccolithophores). Oceanic iron occurs as nanoparticles, which
bond strongly to organic compounds and other minerals. Such an
intimate association between iron nanoparticles and biogenic
materials may have been significant in the early stages of
development of life.
Nanominerals and Health
Mineral nanoparticles may also play an important role in
human health. In particular, apatite nano-articles (calcium
hydroxyphosphate carbonate) bind readily to biologically
significant molecules, such as carbohydrates, lipids (fats), proteins,
and even DNA and RNA. Certain blood proteins (e.g., albumin,
fetuin-A) attach tightly to calcium in nano-apatite, which may help
protect the body against undesirable calcification. On the other
hand, this tight association also promotes beneficial growth of
bone and teeth. However, calcification in the wrong tissues may
lead to diseases, such as hardening of the arteries, where fatty
deposits clog the arteries like boiler scale, or arthritis, where
calcium deposits stiffen the joints. Calcification of tissue has even
been possibly linked to certain cancers. Here is yet another
example of the ability of certain organic compounds to bind to
mineral nano-particles—the further study of which may offer
additional clues to the emergence of life on Earth, billions of years
ago (a topic to be explored further in a later article).
Further Reading
Hochella, M.F. Jr, 2008. Nanoscience: from origins to cutting-edge
applications. Elements 4:373-379.
Hochella, M.F. Jr., et al., 2008. Nanominerals, mineral
nanoparticles, and Earth systems. Science 319:1631-1635.
Putnis, A., 2014. Why mineral interfaces matter. Science
343:1441-1442.
Young, J.D. and Martel, J., 2010. The rise and fall of nanobacteria.
Scientific American Jan. 2010, 52-59.
Waychunas, G.A. and Zhang, H., 2008. Structure, chemistry, and
properties of mineral nanoparticles. Elements 4:381-387.
(Continues next month)
4
Sandstone Arches Shaped By Downward
Pressure & Erosion
By Richard A. Lovett
The fantastical arch shapes of sandstone formations have long
been thought to be sculpted by wind and rain. But a team of
researchers has now found that the shapes are inherent to the rock
itself.
April 2015
material has been removed. Eventually, a critical pressure is
reached at which the sand grains lock together and become
“incredibly stable”, he says.
Numerical modeling revealed that the resulting shapes
followed the stress fields — a finding that also applied to natural
landforms such as Utah’s emblematic Delicate Arch, a
free-standing structure that is 20 meters tall.
Supporting the theory, Mayo adds, was a field trip to a part of
Arches National Park where there have been recent rock falls. “We
looked at the blocks on the ground, and they were completely
disintegrated,” he says. “[They] no longer had that critical stress.”
Other scientists, (including sedimentologist Chris Paola of the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who wrote an
accompanying News & Views), say the work provides an answer
to the long-standing question of how such sandstone landscapes
form. Gordon Grant, a research hydrologist at the US Forest
Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon,
calls the explanation “simple, elegant, and plausible”.
The findings do not mean that all sandstone arches, alcoves or
other features should be identical. “Nature is very complex,”
Bruthans says. “Initial conditions matter.”
This story originally appeared in Nature News.
“Erosion gets [excess] material out, but doesn’t make the
shape,” says Jiri Bruthans, a hydrogeologist at Charles University
in Prague, who led the research. Rather, erosion is merely a “tool”
that works in combination with more fundamental factors
embedded in the rock.
These factors are stress fields created by the weight of
overlying rock. Under low stress, Bruthans says, sandstone erodes
easily. But as stress mounts — as parts of a cliff or pillar are
eroded away, for example — the sand grains on the surface of the
remaining rock lock together and become more resistant to further
erosion.
Bruthans’ insight came when he visited the Stralec Quarry in
the Czech Republic, where a loosely packed form of sandstone
known as ‘rock sand’ is mined.
Even though there is no natural cement binding the sand
grains into rock, mining it requires blasting at the sandstone’s face
to break the sand loose, says Alan Mayo, a hydrogeologist at
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and a co-author of the
study. But once the rock is disrupted, he says, “it just
disintegrates”.
Bruthans adds that after blasting, the sandstone in the quarry
rapidly formed arches and other features common to the tourist
attractions seen in places such as Utah’s Arches National Park.
To find out how such soft material could do this, the scientists
took samples into the lab, cut them into small cubes, and used
pressure plates to simulate the weight of overlying material. They
then subjected the cubes to simulated rain or other erosive forces.
What they found, as report in Nature Geoscience, is that when
subjected to such pressures, even these otherwise crumbly
materials quickly eroded into arches, alcoves and pillars that then
became extremely resistant to further erosion. Subsequent
experiments with more firmly consolidated sandstones from the
North American Southwest produced the same result.
What happens, Mayo says, is that as erosion undercuts the
material in ways that would normally cause it to collapse, pressure
mounts along the remaining rock where the greatest amount of
In Defense Of Science
By Jonathan Bines
In human history, no practice has more profoundly advanced
human understanding of the natural world than that of science. So
it seems tragic, in the year 2014, that science should require a
defense (by a comedy writer, no less). And yet, in both the national
dialogue on issues such as climate change, evolution, and vaccines,
and in recent conversations I have had with people I consider
reasonable and well-educated, I have discovered a shocking
anti-science narrative emerging; a fundamental ignorance of or
distrust of science that expresses itself in opinions such as:
April 2015

Scientists have been wrong in the past and thus should not be
trusted now
Scientists are biased by personal prejudices, financial
incentives, and the desire for personal or professional success,
and therefore their conclusions are suspect
Scientific results are not certain, and therefore they can be
discounted
Science is just another way of knowing that should not be
given primacy over other ways, such as intuitive knowledge
or personal experience.
Some scientists disagree with the consensus view so there is
no way to assess who is right.
Science is the cause of the problems resulting from
technology and therefore suspect.
Policymakers may ignore science on the grounds that they,
themselves, are not scientists.
While some of these opinions are simply misguided, others,
at some level, could offer potentially useful critiques of the actual
practice of science. However, none of them represent any kind of
a rebuttal to the basic, essential fact that, for all its imperfection,
hubris, sloppiness, or uncertainty, science works. Like a flashlight
shined into dark spaces, science shines the light of its analytical
method into the opaque mysteries of the natural world and makes
them comprehensible. And it does this over and over again, in field
after field of scientific inquiry.
Science is able to achieve its results by following a rigorous
method of investigation involving the creation and testing of
hypotheses against observational evidence. At every stage, these
hypotheses are subjected to intense challenge. First, they are tested
through the process of scientific research. Then through the
process of publication and peer review they are subjected to
challenge by the larger scientific community. After publication,
they continue to be challenged, corroborated, modified, or refined
by new research and new hypotheses. Science that has withstood
this onslaught of skepticism is seen to be accurate and trustworthy,
and consequently it earns the backing of a consensus of practicing
scientists.
Because science is based on such a strong foundation of
evidence and analytical rigor, anyone who would challenge
science, particularly well-established science such as that on
evolution, climate, or vaccines (or, for that matter, gravitation and
quantum mechanics), rightly faces a very high burden of proof, a
burden which most science skeptics fail even to acknowledge,
much less satisfy. Science cannot be refuted by appeals to intuition
or personal experience, attacks on the character or motivations of
scientists, accusations of institutional bias, or by "cherry-picking"
a particular authority figure, alternative theory, or research study.
It cannot be denied because it is inconvenient, or because one
dislikes the policy implications. It cannot be dismissed on
supernatural grounds or through suggestions of conspiracy. It
cannot be undermined by dreaming up alternative hypotheses
(unsupported by strong evidence), or by pointing to remaining
uncertainties in the established theory. All these are utterly
inconsequential as refutations – not because scientists "know
better" than the rest of us – but simply because they fail to
convincingly meet the burden of proof.
Science works, and so we accept its findings – not because we
have "faith" in them or because they are perfect – but because in
an uncertain world, we wish to use the best available information
to solve our problems, improve our condition, and understand our
situation. This means, in the year 2014, accepting the current
5
scientific consensus that vaccines are well-understood, safe, and
effective. It means accepting the current scientific consensus that
humans are causing the climate to change through the emission of
atmospheric carbon and other greenhouse gasses with results that
will almost certainly range from bad to catastrophic. It means
accepting the current scientific consensus that evolution through
natural selection is the theory most likely to describe observed
biological diversity at all levels from DNA to species, including
human beings. Certainly, we should maintain a "healthy
skepticism," but we should focus that skepticism, not on the
science, but rather on the claims of those who profess to be in
possession of some special knowledge or authority outside of the
formal scientific process. To do otherwise would be to deprive
ourselves of the greatest tool for human advancement mankind has
ever known, at exactly the time when such a tool is needed most.
Source: Huffington Post from October 18, 2014
These Dirty-Sounding Words Are
Geologic or Mineralogical Terms
(So Get Your Mind Out Of The Gutter!)
Just
Fukalite. Calm down. Fukalite is a mineral composed mostly of
calcium, oxygen, and silicon.
Fuka mine, Fuka,
Bicchu-cho (Bitchu-cho),
Takahashi City, Okayama
Prefecture, Chugoku
Region, Honshu Island,
Japan
Cummingtonite. Not kidding, cummingtonite is a brownish
mineral made mostly of iron and magnesium (see below for its
chemical formula). It’s named after Cummington, a town in
Massachusetts.
Schist. Nope, not a curse word. It’s actually a common type of
metamorphic rock that can be split easily into sheets.
6
Albedo. It might sound like another word for your sex drive, but
albedo is actually a measure of the reflectivity of Earth’s surface
– the amount of solar energy reflected from the Earth’s surface
back into space.
Galactic bulge. You might hear an astronomer use this word, but
not in the bedroom – a galactic bulge is the center of a galaxy
made of mostly older stars. The Milky Way’s core is made of
10,000 stars, and last year, scientists discovered it is shaped like a
peanut.
Stimulated Emission. Get your mind off biology and think
chemistry and physics. This is a process that occurs when a photon
interacts with an atom’s electron and causes it to drop to a lower
energy level, which then releases energy in the form of another
photon.
Arsole. Arsole is an arsenic-based organic compound. Its
molecules are ring-shaped.
April 2015
Dickite. Dickite, Al2Si2O5(OH) 4, is a (kaolin) clay-like mineral
which exhibits mica-like layers with silicate sheets of 6-membered
rings bonded to aluminum oxide/hydroxide layers. It got its name
from the geologist that discovered it around the 1890s, Dr. W.
Thomas Dick, of Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Source: The Huffington Post from July 20, 2014. [Editor’s Note:
These entries were extracted from a longer article with similar
examples. About half of the words, all shown here, were related to
our hobby. I also added a few of my own. The illustrations, easily
found on the Internet, were added by me for “emphasis”. – Mitch.]
Diamonds Created from Peanut Butter
If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then diamonds made from
peanut butter are too much to handle.
Over four million people were killed in a regional African war
between 1998 and 2003 over limited mineral resources, including
diamonds, according to NBC
News. However, the process
to create fake diamonds is
becoming much simpler. To
demonstrate the point,
German scientist Dan Frost
claims he is able to make
diamonds from peanut butter.
The process takes several
weeks to create a diamond just 3 millimeters in length.
Real diamonds are made of carbon atoms that have been
heated and compressed at depths about 100 miles in the Earth’s
mantle.
Frost makes his peanut butter diamonds by using the sandwich
staple as a source of carbon. He puts it between two diamonds and
squeezes the peanut butter.
The result is a very tiny, and less pure diamond.
This process as the potential to alleviate conflict or “blood”
diamonds.
It would be interesting to see what other materials could be
used to make diamonds. People would pay a ton of money for
diamonds made from Big Papi’s (David Ortiz of the Boston Red
Sox) broken bats.
April 2015
7
Tiny Space Rock Stirs Debate Over Life On Mars
Evidence For Dark Matter Finally Found?
An international team of researchers say they’ve found
evidence of biological activity inside a meteorite that fell to Earth
from Mars three years ago–in other words, possible evidence that
there was once life on the red planet.
By Macrina Cooper-White
After a decades-long search, astronomers may finally have
found the first sign of dark matter. That’s the invisible substance
that scientists believe makes up the bulk of our universe, since
visible matter accounts for only about 20 percent of our universe’s
mass.
This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the inner region of Abell
1689, an immense cluster of galaxies located 2.2 billion light-years away. The cluster's
gravitational field is warping light from background galaxies, causing them to appear
as arcs. Dark matter in the cluster, which represents about 80 percent of its mass, is
mapped by plotting these arcs. Dark matter cannot be photographed, but its
distribution is shown in the blue overlay. | NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/Yale/CNRS
The Mars meteorite, named Tissint
But other scientists aren’t convinced.
The meteorite in question is the “Tissint” specimen, which
famously fell on the Moroccan desert on July 18, 2011.
As the team of researchers–including scientists in China,
Japan, Germany, and Switzerland–report in a new paper, chemical,
microscopic, and isotope analyses show traces of organic carbon
within tiny fissures in the space rock, and that the carbon had to
have been deposited before the rock left Mars. Just check out the
video above describing the research.
“I’m completely open to the possibility that other studies
might contradict our findings,” Dr. Philippe Gillet, director of the
EPFL Earth and Planetary Sciences Laboratory in Lausanne,
Switzerland and a co-author of the paper, said in a written
statement. “However, our conclusions are such that they will
rekindle the debate as to the possible existence of biological
activity on Mars–at least in the past.”
And contradiction wasn’t long in coming.
As Dr. Marc Fries, a scientist with NASA’s curation office at
the Johnson Space Center in Houston who was not involved in the
meteorite research, told The Huffington Post in an email, “The
research group claims that this carbonaceous material is evidence
of past life on Mars. I do not agree, and it is not the current
consensus of the scientific community that their claim is valid.”
Fries said the meteorite could have been contaminated with
carbon from terrestrial sources, even if the carbon did come from
Mars.
“A biological origin is not the only possible explanation for
the carbon found in Tissint,” he said in the email. “Other
possibilities include volcanic and/or hydrothermal activity on Mars
which could permeate Tissint with carbon-bearing fluids...
Regardless of whether this particular meteorite contains evidence
of life, the implications are more complicated than any simple yes
or no answer to whether there is or was life on Mars.”
The study was published online in the journal Meteoritics and
Planetary Science on November 26, 2014.
While scientists can observe dark matter indirectly by looking
at its gravitational effects on visible matter, they have struggled to
come up with tangible evidence that proves the stuff exists--until
now.
This week, a team of researchers from Switzerland and the
Netherlands announced that they may have detected the signal of
decaying dark matter particles.
For the research, the team analyzed the x-rays emitted from
two celestial objects: the Perseus galaxy cluster, an array of
galaxies located approximately 250 million light years from Earth,
and our “sister” galaxy Andromeda, which is approximately 2.5
million light years away. The researchers looked at data collected
by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton telescope and
spotted a mysterious “anomaly” that could not have been emitted
by any known atom or particle.
The same strange x-ray spike was also detected by a research
team at Harvard in June, who announced they had spotted the
emission in data from 70 different galaxy clusters.
“This tiny (several hundred extra photons) excess has been
interpreted as originating from very rare decays of dark matter
particles,” Dr. Alexey Boyarsky, a professor of physics at Leiden
University in the Netherlands and the lead researcher for the new
study, told The Huffington Post in an email. “Although the signal
is very weak, it has passed several ‘sanity checks’ that one expects
from a decaying dark matter signal.”
For instance, the researchers say the signal was more
concentrated in the center and weak at the edges of Andromeda
and the Perseus cluster, which corresponds to what they expected.
Boyarsky added that the team has now found a signal at the same
wave length coming from our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Boyarsky and his team believe the signal comes from the
decay of a dark matter particle, possibly a “sterile neutrino,” which
is a hypothetical particle believed to be 1/100th the size of an
electron.
“Confirmation of this discovery may lead to construction of
new telescopes specially designed for studying the signals from
dark matter particles,” Boyarsky said in a written statement. “We
will know where to look in order to trace dark structures in space
and will be able to reconstruct how the Universe has formed.”
Source: Huffingtonpost.com Dec. 13, 2014
8
April 2015
Sulfides of Iron
Marcasite
iron
disulfide
orthorhombic
yellowgreen
4,192
places
Pyrite
iron
disulfide
isometric
yellow
32,390
places
Pyrrhotite
iron sulfide
hexagonal
yellow to
brown
7,028
places
At Dalnegorsk, I believe one can find pyrite, pyrite after
pyrrhotite, pyrrhotite, pyrrhotite altering to pyrite, pyrrhotite
altering to marcasite and marcasite. There is a possibility of others
as well. The three species as indicated above have a propensity to
alter and very often do so. Goethite “limonite” after pyrite is
exceedingly common worldwide. Some members of the collecting
fraternity are concerned with the stability of specimens – and they
are justified based on observations of samples in even the bestmaintained collections.
Spectacular Pyrite Cubes on Matrix from Navajun, Spain
The specimens I am most familiar with (Dalnegorsk) all
appear to be remarkably stable and they make excellent cabinet
material. Notable pieces in my collection include a four inch single
cube, a four inch tabular crystal of pyrrhotite, a stacked crystal
cluster (five inches) of pyrrhotite and a seven inch plate of
iridescent pyrite cubes to about one-half inch on a matrix
specimen. A more unusual piece has a three inch pyrrhotite crystal
with a one-half inch pyrite right in the center – all on a calcite
matrix about six inches across. I believe it is interesting to find
these two species in fine crystals in intimate association. It has
been reported before where pyrite forms on top of pyrrhotite.
Incidentally, other places have produced specimens that
appear to be somewhat unstable like marcasite after pyrrhotite
from Llallagua, Bolivia with crystals to six inches (although plates
can be nearly a foot across!). Wavellite and quartz may overgrow
these pieces. Some fossilized snails, etc. will decompose; I have
samples from Lyme Regis, England and upstate New York that are
completely ruined. They were, I believe, marcasite at one time.
For those who want to own a specimen from some other place,
I am reasonably sure that the following items are relatively stable
based on personal experience. Marcasite, in small clusters perched
on galena or sphalerite (i.e. Tri-State material) appears to be very
stable and reasonably attractive. Pyrite from Peru also is solid;
specimens are brilliant and can have large crystals. Older
pyrrhotites from Mexico and Yugoslavia appear to be very durable
too. The relatively new pyrites from Tanzania are exceptionally
fine. Long ago, pyrrhotites were found in a pegmatite in Maine –
they were particularly peculiar but lovely specimens.
In the past, Roxbury iron mine and Thomaston dam (both in
Connecticut) as well as local Manhattan rocks were noted to
produce nice pyrite crystals. You may still be able to find these
today. Western New York has been a good area for pyritized
fossils but some may actually turn out to be marcasite. In the past,
Chester, Vermont produced some pyrite as did a road cut on I-91
in Vermont. So, if you feel adventurous, look around and you may
find some iron sulfides beneath your feet.
As I have mentioned before, some minerals are collected to
the exclusion of all others by certain people. The iron sulfides
might seem too limited but the diversity of forms along with
twinning and various associated species can make an awesome
display. Tiny pyrite crystals are found dusting calcite and quartz
clusters – these can be brilliant under the proper type of lighting.
Combinations like marcasite on sphalerite are also very nice
collection pieces. On occasion, you can even find tanzanite with
pyrite – what’s not to like about that? Some pieces have fanciful
names such as pyrite suns from Illinois and elsewhere. They are
generally in sedimentary rock and, if the rock is black, they
absolutely glow when illuminated.
Finally, as far as fluorescence in gems goes, these species do
not have much to offer. You can see the occasional cabochon but
I think this is not very popular. The most beautiful example I can
think of is lapis with pyrite flecks in it. This makes a really nice
cabochon material but it is only a few percent pyrite.
April 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
Mine to Market– Opal’s Colorful Journey
Precious opal has been holding fans spellbound for centuries.
The gemstone is unique in more ways than its kaleidoscopic
appearance. This stone is a hydrated amorphous form of silica
and usually contains between 6 - 10% water by weight. It’s not
unheard of for specimens to have up to 20% water, either.
The mesmeric play of colors for which opal is revered owes
a debt of gratitude to its unusual internal structure. Unlike
diamonds and gemstones with a cubic crystal structure, opal is
composed of microscopic silica spheres which diffract light into
its rainbow hues.
and color combination. And that aspect has endeared them to
both art lovers and devotees of one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.
Opal and diamond ring in yellow gold; Courtesy: John Ternus, Opal Guy
Underground with hydraulic rotary head digger; large black pipe suctions up dirt for
processing, Courtesy: John Ternus, Opal Guy
When people get the opal bug, it often bites deep. Take John
Ternus for example. Called the Opal Guy for good reason, John’s
been mining these treasures in Australia for over 35 years. Opal
is found around the world in certain geological conditions, but by
far, the most renowned region remains Australia. The finest of
the fine is said to occur in the famed Lightning Ridge deposits of
New South Wales, bordering Queensland. It is the only locale
where stable black opal can be found. The deep opaque tone of
black opal creates a dramatic contrast for vibrant colors to dance
across the face of these majestic gems.
A recent conversation with Ternus illuminates the miner’s
love for these marvels. “I am continually amazed at the varieties
of opal colors in proximity to each other and in combination with
the same stone,” he confides. The base colors, whether
transparent, white, grey, or black, Ternus feels, “are influenced
by the inclusion of trace elements in the opal, and the gem color
which is dictated by the size of microns of the light refracting
silica spheres.”
Opal Guy Ternus is still enchanted by what he uncovers in
these remote deposits. “In mining, I have found black crystal
opal with red and green color-play next to root beer brown body
color opal with a globule of gem multi-color crystal opal in the
center of it. Trying to imagine what was going on with regards to
the geological events that came to form the opal is fascinating.”
Besides their intrinsic beauty, each opal is distinct in shape, size
He also finds these magnificent gems have a story tell.
“Though some might be similar, they are all different and their
variety is astounding,” he said. “They are like people, each with
their own personality.”
“Personally, when I look at an opal,” Ternus confides, “It’s
easy to believe that there is a greater power at work in the
universe that would gift such treasures like these stones.” I think
we’d all agree there is something out of this world about this
multi-color muse.
During a heated discussion Opal screamed at Amber,
telling her that not only was she not a jewel but she wasn't
even a mineral.
“Is that so,” Amber snorted, stating flatly that Opal had
no cleavage.
“Perhaps so,” replied Opal, “but at least I'm not just
organic ooze with bugs - I'm pristine, white, and smooth.”
“That's tuff,” said Amber, secreting with rage.
10
Strange Rock from Russia Contains 30,000
Diamonds
By Becky Oskin
SAN FRANCISCO — Here’s the perfect Christmas gift for
the person who has everything: A red and green rock,
ornament-sized, stuffed with 30,000 teeny-tiny diamonds.
This rock from Russia's Udachnaya mine contains 30,000 diamonds.
The sparkly chunk was pulled from Russia’s huge Udachnaya
diamond mine and donated to science (the diamonds’ tiny size
means they’re worthless as gems). It was a lucky break for
researchers, because the diamond-rich rock is a rare find in many
ways, scientists reported Monday (Dec. 15) at the American
Geophysical Union’s annual meeting.
“The exciting thing for me is there are 30,000 itty-bitty,
perfect octahedrons, and not one big diamond,” said Larry Taylor,
a geologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who
presented the findings. “It’s like they formed instantaneously.”
The concentration of diamonds in the rock is millions of times
greater than that in typical diamond ore, which averages 1 to 6
carats per ton, Taylor said. A carat is a unit of weight (not size),
and is roughly equal to one-fifth of a gram, or 0.007 ounces.
The astonishing amount of diamonds, and the rock’s unusual
Christmas coloring, will provide important clues to Earth’s
geologic history as well as the origin of these prized gemstones,
Taylor said. “The associations of minerals will tell us something
about the genesis of this rock, which is a strange one indeed,” he
said.
Although diamonds have been desired for centuries, and are
now understood well enough to be recreated in a lab, their natural
origins are still a mystery.
“The [chemical] reactions in which diamonds occur still
remain an enigma,” Taylor told Live Science.
Scientists think diamonds are born deep below Earth’s surface,
in the layer between the crust and core called the mantle.
Explosive volcanic eruptions then carry hunks of diamond-rich
mantle to the surface. However, most mantle rocks disintegrate
during the trip, leaving only loose crystals at the surface. The
Udachnaya rock is one of the rare nuggets that survived the
rocketing ride.
Taylor works with researchers at the Russian Academy of
Sciences to study Udachnaya diamonds. The scientists first probed
April 2015
the entire rock with an industrial X-ray tomography scanner, which
is similar to a medical CT scanner but capable of higher X-ray
intensities. Different minerals glow in different colors in the X-ray
images, with diamonds appearing black.
The thousands upon thousands of diamonds in the rock cluster
together in a tight band. The clear crystals are just 0.04 inches (1
millimeter) tall and are octahedral, meaning they are shaped like
two pyramids that are glued together at the base. The rest of the
rock is speckled with larger crystals of red garnet, and green
olivine and pyroxene. Minerals called sulfides round out the mix.
A 3D model built from the X-rays revealed the diamonds formed
after the garnet, olivine and pyroxene minerals.
Exotic materials captured inside diamonds, in tiny capsules
called inclusions, can also provide hints as to how they were made.
The researchers beamed electrons into the inclusions to identify the
chemicals trapped inside. The chemicals included carbonate, a
common mineral in limestone and seashells, as well as garnet.
Altogether, the findings suggest the diamonds crystallized
from fluids that escaped from subducted oceanic crust, likely
composed of a dense rock called peridotite, Taylor reported
Monday. Subduction is when one of Earth’s tectonic plates
crumples under another plate. The results will be published in a
special issue of Russian Geology and Geophysics next month
(January 2015), Taylor said.
The unusual chemistry would represent a rare case among
diamonds, said Sami Mikhail, a researcher at the Carnegie
Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved
in the study. However, Mikhail offered another explanation for the
unusual chemistry. “[The source] could be just a really, really old
formation that’s been down in the mantle for a long time,” he said.
Asbestos Minerals vs. Fiber Basalt
By John F. Sanfaçon
At this year’s Rock and Mineral Weekend, a number of showgoers were intrigued by an item in my display of synthetic
materials: fiber basalt, which, when given to me by the father of
one of my students, I first thought was spinach linguini! This
astounding material has physical and chemical properties which
have put a serious dent in the asbestos mining industry, which has
declined greatly of late due to a rash of liability suits brought by
miners exposed to the carcinogenic effects of inhaling asbestos
dust. You probably have heard radio commercials offering legal
services to those workers who have mesothelioma and other
related lung diseases. Fiber basalt’s greatest asset, perhaps, is that
it is not carcinogenic, but that’s not all it promises. But first, let’s
review what is meant by “asbestos”.
The term “asbestos” is an umbrella term used to describe six
similar silicate minerals which can form long, thin, weavable
fibrous crystals: 1) chrysotile (a serpentine, and the only one of the
six not an amphibole), Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4; 2) amosite (a/k/a
grunerite, also known as “brown asbestos”), Fe7Si8O22(OH)2; 3)
crocidolite (the blue fibrous form of riebeckite – fine fibers are
known as “amianthus” – the French for asbestos is amiante),
Na2Fe2+3Fe3+2Si8O22(OH)2; 4) actinolite, Ca2(Mg,Fe)5(Si8O22)(OH)2;
5) tremolite, Ca2Mg5Si8O22(OH)2; and 6) anthophyllite, (Mg,
Fe)7Si8O22(OH)2. The last three mentioned often are difficult to
differentiate in field-collected specimens. Crocidolite which
retains its blue color can be replaced by quartz, and is then called
hawk-eye. If the crocidolite has become brown by iron oxide
staining and is then replaced by quartz, we have the familiar tigereye.
April 2015
These six asbestos minerals are currently regulated by OSHA
as hazardous materials, and the American Thoracic Society adds
two other similar amphiboles, richterite and winchite, as
“asbestiform”, but are not considered as dangerous as the six. A
cursory glance at the five amphiboles in Fleischer’s Glossary of
Mineral Species shows them to be monoclinic, while chrysotile is
orthorhombic.
I was surprised to learn that health-related issues involving
asbestos mining reach back to Roman times, and concerns for all
miners’ safety increased in the1920s and 1930s, no doubt aided by
the aggressive stance of John L. Lewis on behalf of coal miners.
By the 1980s and 1990s asbestos was either heavily restricted,
phased out or banned outright. The classic Jeffrey Mine in
Asbestos, Quebec, the world’s largest asbestos mine and home to
many highly-sought minerals, was forced to shut down operations
in 2011.
Two small chunks of basalt rock from the Watchung Mountains lying next to extruded
basalt fiber product
So the time was ripe for some noncarcinogenic material to
proxy asbestos, and high-tech industry came up with basalt fiber,
made by washing and then melting (at about 1400 C° or 2550 F°)
that humble igneous rock that makes up our Watchung Mountains.
No other chemicals need to be added. The molten rock is then
extruded through nozzles to produce fibrous filaments with a
diameter between 9 and 13 micrometers, far enough above the
statutory respiratory limit of 5 micrometers. In other words,
particles of basalt fiber are too big to be air-borne, and thus are not
likely to be inhaled by workers. Similar to carbon fiber and
fiberglass, basalt fiber is cheaper than the former, and stronger
than the latter. In fact, basalt fiber has greater tensile strength than
steel, and as tubing can transport high-temperature, corrosive
chemicals safely, while weighing in with a density of only 2.7
g/cm3, roughly that of quartz or calcite. Like the asbestos it is
replacing, basalt fiber is flame and fire-resistant, and is even
stronger than Kevlar, which is used in a policeman’s bulletproof
vest. With an endless supply of basalt worldwide, the future for
basalt fiber is also limitless!
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos,_Quebec
Back, Malcolm E., Fleischer’s Glossary of Mineral Species
2014; The Mineralogical Record, Tucson, 2014
Arem, Joel E., Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, 2nd Ed.;
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York; 1987
Source: December 2014 issue of The Rockhound Register, bulletin
of The Morris Museum Mineralogical Society.
11
12
Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees
How jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst
wasted time and money
By Mitch Portnoy
One of my specific interests in the world of minerals involves
the topic of fakes and frauds. I have read a good deal about it and
created a presentation about this issue thathave delivered many
times during the past few years. In fact, I keep up with the trends
and even keep the presentation up to date with new and nefarious
mineral scams that come to m y attention.
Recently, a friend of mine was hired to determine the veracity
of a supposed gold specimen from a locality in Colorado. And this
is where the story begins.
He jumped. Immediately he began
performing all kinds of determinative
tests on the specimen. Some he could do
in his own laboratory; others needed
external work so he sent small samples
out to various ID services around the
country. After spending the time and
money doing all this, he determined the
specimen was indeed NOT gold and
wrote a 4-page, single spacedpaper
which he sent to me, with several
photographs also attached, describing all
the tests and their results and warning all
of us to beware specimen fraud. He went
on a bit about how evil the dealer was
and howbadly his client was cheated.
But the story here is more
interesting than just a simple one about
an “expert” determining that a specimen was fake. Here are some
of the facts and a bit about the person doing the evaluation.
The gold specimen was bought in 1980 (!) by a relatively new
collector for $500. The dealer, now deceased, was also rather new
to the hobby at the time. The new collector had bought many items
from the new dealer and these mineral specimens are still in the
collector’s collection. We would probably all agree that $500 was
a LOT of money to spend on a specimen those many decades ago.
Perhaps some inquiry about the mineral’s authenticity should have
been done at the time, but it was not.
My friend, a PhD scientist and college professor, is the type
of person who seems to see the dark side of most situations. He is
intelligent if rather literal and often misses the humor or subtlety
of situations. He does dabble in mineral and gem dealing (although
relatively inexperienced in the world of minerals). He is not a bad
or sketchy type but it is interesting how often he seems to be
involved in problematic transactions.
And so, after doing all the work described above (I did not ask
what his fee for doing this was, by the way) he sent his paper and
illustrations to (1) me, (2) to a well-seasoned dealer and (3) to a
famous mineralogist. Here’s what happened actually within a few
hours of this paper being distributed:
The dealer, who admitted he had not even read the paper yet,
told the fellow that the specimen pictured “in no way resembles
any of the golds I have ever sold from that locality” so there is
certainly some kind of problem. He suggested that my friend look
on Mindat or the Internet for photos of gold specimens from that
area in Colorado to see what he means.
April 2015
The mineralogist called it “an obvious fake.” (I assume he
also had not actually read the paper but just looked at the photos.)
That was all his email reply contained. Short and bitter.
I made another point. I had looked at the label which was also
pictured with the specimen and had some questions and thoughts.
My first questionwas wondering if the label was the correct
one for the specimen. As you know, labels and specimens in a
collection can get separated from each other and jumbled up over
time. Well, the interesting thing I saw was that the box that the
specimen came in had the same ID number as appeared on the
label AND was clearly written in the same hand with the same ink.
I know that one might think that a different specimen could have
been put into the box but it fit so perfectly,I decided not to worry
about that. This was the specimen’s original label.
But the contents of the label was more telling. The gold was
described as a “model specimen” and
“leaf gold” from a very specific,
famous,Colorado gold-specimen
producing area. And please note that the
use of quotation marks was actually
used on the label in exactly the way I
have indicated here.
My conclusion: this specimen was
some kind of display prop and NEVER
was meant to be considered a real gold
specimen. It had been part of some
display or exhibit or diorama.
The likely scenario: A curator or
teacher or student had some time before
1980 put together an historic display
about Colorado gold or the town or
mining history or something related to
those themes. Included in the display was a “sample” gold
specimen from the area, created specifically for the display.
Time passes and the student graduates, or the professor retires,
or the original curator is fired. The new administrator, knowing
NOTHING about minerals, decides to discontinue the display or
install something new and happily gives the item to his brother or
sells the beautiful “gold” specimen to a friend for a good price to
benefit his institution. Everyone is happy. Ignorance is bliss.
And now, 35 years later, for whatever reason, the current
owner wants to evaluate the value of his prize gold specimen that
he had obtained in 1980. A 4-page (unnecessary and redundant)
article containing bad news follows. Oops.
So what do we learn from this scenario?
(1) The buyer of an expensive specimen, if there are any
controversies about it, should have the evaluation done
on it as close to the time of purchase as possible.
(2) The evaluator or appraiser should take the SIMPLE
steps first, before spending a lot of money and time in
determining if the specimen is what it is supposed to be.
Walk before sprinting.
(3) Perhaps it is best NOT to assume the worst at all
times. In this case, for example, we probably have an
problem of lost information rather than criminal fraud.
Let the facts guide your opinion rather than fitting the
facts into a pre-written conclusion.
| Comments welcome!
April 2015
13
14
Jamie Kruse: “New York City is a Geologic Force”
Since 2005, smudge studio has pursued what we take to be
our most urgent and meaningful task as artists and humans: to
invent and enact practices capable of acknowledging and living
in responsive relationship to forces of change that make the
world. Through our current projects and performative research,
we design and cultivate embodied practices that support us in
paying nuanced attention to the fast and intense material realities
that now emerging on a planetary scale — without leaving us
reeling in states of distraction or despair.
Jamie will bring copies of this fascinating guide for sale and
for the signing!
April 2015
Meanwhile high in the Japanese Alps, Alfredo hiked to the
crater rim of a still-active volcano belching noxious fumes, site of
an ancient sulfur mine. The acidic sulfur-laden gases had altered
an abandoned bulldozer into a “pseudomorph” of limonite and
goethite. Of greater appeal to the collector, however, are the
famous Japanese “cherry blossom” stones, or intergrowths of
cordierite and indialite, now altered to pinkish mica. The rare opal
pseudomorphs after gastropods (snails) are an aesthetic delight, in
spite of their rather unappealing Japanese nickname: “moon poop.”
From the frigid waters of Greenland, Ellesmere Island in the
far Canadian Arctic, Siberia, and even the Olympic Peninsula,
Washington, come crystal clusters of calcite after ikaite, CaCO3 •
H2O. Ikaite, unstable above 2ºC, or more precisely, its calcite
pseudomorph, is therefore a useful paleoclimate indicator. For
example, its occurrence in the now moist temperate climate of the
Olympic Peninsula points to an Arctic-like climate that prevailed
during the last Ice Age, over 11,000 years ago.
Alfredo, as usual, treated Club members to an entertaining
evening filled with adventure, travelogue, arcane local history, and
a wealth of mineral information.
Greetings From Namibia
Alfredo Petrov – Marvelous Pseudomorphs
(Continued from page2)
Pseudomorph, or literally “false shape”, refers to a mineral
that masquerades in the shape of another which it has replaced.
Familiar examples include goethite after pyrite or malachite after
azurite. Sometimes remnant traces of the original mineral confirm
the replacement. On the road to Cora Cora, once the “Copper
Capital of Bolivia” at 13,000 feet elevation, artisanal miners dig
out “ratholes” in the mountainside to extract copper ore. However,
unusual copper after aragonite crystals lie embedded in the soft
clays of a nearby dried-out lakebed, easily plucked out by eager
collectors. Here, native copper has totally replaced twinned
pseudo-hexagonal aragonite crystals. But even “pseudomorphs”
can deceive: a seemingly rare specimen of “copper after halite”
near Coro Coro turned out to be halite (rock salt) coated by ironoxide stained clay; a “turquoise after gypsum” specimen was
aragonite on gypsum artificially dyed with copper salts. However,
a really unique “pseudomorph” was the body of a hapless trapped
Inca miner, now totally engulfed by copper except for his head!
In Potosi, once the largest city of the Americas and the
world’s primary source of silver, children still labor in the mines.
However, the diligent collector can still find rare pseudomorphs:
lazulite transformed into feldspar; pyrrotite turned into pyrite and
greenockite; phosphophyillite replacing a clam shell; and
bournonite becoming silver-rich tetrahedrite.
I just saw the club bulletin. I’m in distant Namibia on vacation and
buying a few minerals. It’s sunny and in the 90s. A beautiful
country. Enjoy the cold!
Rich Blackman
Namibian Mineral Shop (Seriously!)
April 2015
15
2015 Club Calendar
Date
Event
Location
April 8
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse – “NYC is a
Geologic Force”
May 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
June 10
Benefit Auction
Holiday Inn Midtown New York
Mezzanine C
July ?
Officers’ Planning Meeting
TBD
Details to Follow
August ?
Open House
Alla Priceman, Larchmont, NY
Details to Follow
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Steve Okulewicz – “Digging
Gold in Alaska”
October 7
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Related Special Demo ( R. Bostwick )
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
2015-16 Show or Event Calendar
Date
Event
Location
March 27-29
April 10-12
NY / NJ Gem Mineral,
NJ Convention & Expo Center,
Edison, New Jersey
Minerals, Crystals, Gemstones, Beads, Fossils,
Metaphysical Accouterments, Decor Items
April 23-26
Radisson Hotel Rochester
Airport, Rochester, NY
Lectures, Exhibits, Dealers, Presentations,
Auctions, Banquet, etc.
April 25-26
Mineral Show
Franklin School, Washington
Ave, Franklin, New Jersey
(913) 209-7212
May 16-17
Celinka Gem & Mineral
Show
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel,
Patchogue, Long Island
17+ dealers; Info: Elaine Casani
(631-567-3342)
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 14-15
July 27- Aug 1, 2016
Albany, Oregon
Details to Follow
October 21-23, 2016
Rochester, New York
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Next Meeting – Wednesday, April 8, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse, Artist – “New York City is a Geologic Force”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 5
May 13th Meeting:
Renée Newman: “Exotic Gems
Today”
While working as an international tour
director, Renée was exposed to beautiful
gems in Asia, South America, and the
So uth P acific. S he saw gems
everywhere—in hotels, airports, tourist
attractions and, naturally, in shopping areas.
Her passengers wanted to know how to get
good buys on them and spot quality, so she
searched libraries and bookstores for help.
Although there was information on gem
identification, history, mining and lore,
there was little about judging the quality of
pearls and colored gems.
When she heard about a colored gem
grading class at the Gemological Institute of
America (GIA), she decided to enroll. The
enthusiasm of the instructors inspired her to
sign up for the gemology program there.
Two years later, she obtained a GIA
Graduate Gemologist diploma and began
work as a gemologist at a wholesale firm in
Los Angeles. It was a great opportunity
because she worked with a wide variety of
diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and
pearls. She was also involved in jewelry
quality control.
Ever since she had become aware of
the need for affordable information on gem
evaluation, she wanted to write a consumer
guide to buying gems. Gradually, writing,
research and book promotion became a
full-time occupation.
After graduating from the University of
California at Santa Barbara, she taught
English in France, Spain and Japan. To do
that, she had to learn to communicate in
clear, simple English so foreign students
could understand her. This in turn helped
her write about gems in an easy-to-read
style that lay people can understand.
May 2015
If You Can’t Stand the Heat,
Get Out of the Universe
By Steven Newton
The New York Times ran an interesting
article back in January by Adam Frank
titled “Is Climate Disaster Inevitable?” This
piece posed an intriguing
answer to this puzzling
question: Where are all
the extraterrestrials?
(If you think the
answer is “Roswell, New
Mexico,” go sit with
Bigfoot and be quiet –
adults are talking.)
The Drake equation gives us an order
of magnitude feel for how many advanced
civilizations there could be in the universe
by looking at parameters such as the
percentage of stars that have planets, the
percentage of those planets which have the
right conditions to support life, etc. There
are a lot of unknowns in these parameters,
but the upshot is that even if one assumes
conservative conditions, there should be
millions of advanced civilizations out there
right now.
Enrico Fermi famously phrased the
question: “So where are they?” thus
spawning the eponymous Fermi paradox.
With so many potential civilizations, why is
the cosmos not saturated with radio signals,
with extraterrestrial equivalents of Keeping
Up With the Kardashians streaming into
space from a thousand different tacky
cultures? Despite the implications of the
Drake equation, we have never encountered
even the slightest hint of extraterrestrial life,
not the faintest wisp of a stray radio signal
from a distant civilization. SETI is listening
diligently, but so far, the universe is
sepulchrally quiet.
One answer to Fermi’s paradox is dark.
Uranium is ubiquitous. There’s so much
uranium in the Earth that it’s played an
important role in keeping our mantle hot,
and hence keeping plate tectonics
functioning. (We’re the only planet we
know of with both life and plate tectonics.
The recycling of the crust and its essential
elements through tectonics suggests this
isn’t a coincidence.) Because uranium is
everywhere in the universe, any advanced
civilization would inevitably discover the
basics of fission and learn how to create an
atomic bomb. So perhaps the solution to
Fermi’s paradox is that advanced
civilizations inevitably
annihilate themselves
with nuclear war, as we
came so close to doing
(and still have the
potential to achieve). We
don’t see UFOs buzzing
around because given
enough time, each
nascent civilization enters a nuclear age –
and they don’t make it out.
That seems unlikely. Sure, it’s
reasonable to assume that warfare and
conflict are not unique to humans, but
would that be universally true for all
possible civilizations? Millions of them?
Surely one would develop along the lines of
The Big Lebowski, a civilization populated
with alien versions of The Dude, aspiring
not to warfare, but only to abide on a
comfortable couch, pontificating about how
well the rug tied the room together, while
sending radio waves into space proclaiming
this slacker anthem.
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Nanominerals II. 3
Garnet Banquet Preview.. . . . . . . . . . 3
Jade Trade & Heroin. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Tales from a Martian Rock.. . . . . . . . 6
Inner Core Surprise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: On Spring Break!. . . . . . . . 8
Show 2015 Dealer Donations.. . . . . . 8
Topics in Gemology: Rock Crystal. . 9
More on the Chelyabinsk Meteor. . . 10
Mysterious Nodules. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Plate Tectonic Mystery Solved.. . . . 11
Mysterious Craters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Crystal Comet.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Fabergé Pearl Egg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Second Natural Quasicrystal!. . . . . . 13
2015 NYMC Members. . . . . . . . . . 14
2
By Mitch Portnoy
At each meeting for a few years now
we have played a mineral or gem ID game
based on color, crystal system, state
minerals, etc. I compiled all of these games
and burned them on CD-ROMS. I then gave
them to Cheryl Neary for distribution to
other EFMLS clubs at the recent convention
in March. I am glad to know that all this
work will have more life and our brother
and sister clubs will have a good time with
them.
Years ago we had many young
members (kids) and for a few years they
formed a club within our club called the
Tourmaline Troop. On several weekends,
we developed programs and activities just
for them. The Troop was discontinued as
their homework burden increased and they
eventually went to college. Is there any
interest in resuscitating this group?
Donations Being Accepted for the
Annual Benefit Auction
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Minerals, Gems, Jewelry, Meteorites,
Lapidary Arts, Crystals, Magazines,
Books, Ephemera, Fossils
April 8, 2015
Attendance: 43
Announcements:
The raffle was held.
After the “usual” historical meeting
day notices, the #3 Minerals & Light
game, about iridescence, was played.
The items available (both free and for
pay) at the meeting were listed.
The Club donated ten CD-ROMS of all
the meeting games to the EFMLS for
distribution to other clubs at the annual
convention.
Janice Kowalski presented the results
of the EFMLS 2015 Article Contest.
A video about Earth’s layers and a fun
presentation set to music about the
periodic table were played.
Upcoming club events were previewed
again with the addition of the
possibility of a charter bus to the
Springfield Mineral Show and the
December lecture by John Sanfaçon.
Special Lecture: Jamie Kruse: “New
York City is a Geological Force”
To raise awareness of the geological
forces that formed the materials
surrounding us, Jamie Kruse and Elizabeth
Ellsworth have created a novel field guide
to New York City, in which they investigate
the underlying “geoarchitecture.” Inspired
by the human imprint on age-old geological
formations in Utah, Jamie Kruse set out to
examine more closely the myriad ways
people channel and reshuffle earth materials
in the city.
May 2015
108 St, where the “Wandering Pole”, a statue
of a wandering Buddhist monk stands. The
pocked and scarred bronze statue holds deep
memories of its ancient pre-solar origins and
a more recent cataclysmic event—the
bombing of Hiroshima in 1945—an apt
symbol of the stark contrasts inherent in the
Anthropocene.
The curious New Yorker can find out
more about the city as a geological force in
“Geologic City: A Field Guide to the
Geoarchitecture of New York” by Jamie
Kruse and Elizabeth Ellsworth.
(1) A term popularized by Paul Crutzen, a
In her presentation, Jamie mentioned Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist
several illustrative examples from among and discoverer of the ozone hole.
the 20 field sites in the guidebook. We now
live in the Anthropocene1, she pointed out, Members in the News
a period in which humans have become a Both Gail Brett Levine and Branko
major geologic force, a period of
Deljanin will be speakers at the
unprecedented rapid population growth,
Mediterranean Gemological and Jewelry
extraction and consumption of earth
Conference in Greece during June 27materials, of waste production, and of
28, 2015.
climate change. The numerous ways in Congratulations to Cheryl Neary,
which we transform ancient rocks makes
elected president of Island Rock Hounds
New York City a “geological hot spot.”
mineral club!
To drive home important points, Jamie Articles by Charles Snider (advice
and Elizabeth invented a special geoabout mineral sho ws and
vocabulary. On the walking tour, one can
rockhounding/cell phones) appeared in
visit “Brownstone National Park”,
the March 2015 issue of Rock Bottom
populated by blocks of dinosaur-age
Facts, bulletin of the Island Rock
Triassic and Jurassic sandstone buildings in
Hounds, Inc.
Brooklyn and other city neighborhoods. The Worthy.com named former Tiffany &
mounds of 8 to 10 million-year old salt
Co. EVP Peter Schneirla as President
from Chile’s arid Atacama desert, used to
in March 2015.
melt snow on city roadways, become a Mitch Portnoy will be delivering a
“desert moraine.” “No zero exists in the
presentation to the Stamford
geologic city” because of constant
Mineralogical Society on May 12, 2015.
remixing, in which, for example,
concrete—a mix of sand, cement, stone, and
Coming Next Month!
water—remix into new “conglomerate.”
Wastes at the Fresh Kills Staten Island
dump site generate methane for energy use,
while the site gradually morphs into a park.
Other scrap yards accumulate the
“wreckage of former worlds”, referring to
piles of rusting metals whose elements were
created in cosmic events long before the
origin of the Solar System.
The geopoetry of Robert Simpson
envisioned Central Park a million years ago,
buried under a vast ice sheet, up to 2,000
feet thick. “Under the frozen depths, where
Assemblywoman Alison McHose introduced
the carousel now stands, you would not
legislation that would designate Franklinite
as the official mineral of New Jersey.
notice the effect on the bedrock as the
Franklinite is named after McHose’s
glacier dragged itself along.” Perhaps not
(R-Sussex) hometown of Franklin Borough,
then, but today the observant stroller will
which is the only place on the planet it’s
notice the scrapes and grooves gouged by
found. “I wanted to do it as sort of a
the now-vanished glaciers on smoothlyrecognition of the fact that it’s an unusual
scoured rock outcrops throughout the park.
mineral, but yet very prominent in geology,”
Jamie concluded her talk with a visit to
McHose said.
the Buddhist temple on Riverside Drive and
May 2015
3
Part II: Nanominerals — Nanodiamond Gems
Banquet 2015 Preview
Will synthetic nano-polycrystalline diamond become the
gem of the future? Although never of gem quality, natural
polycrystalline diam onds1 exist as bort and
carbonado—generally opaque, dark, and unattractive materials
that are tougher than single crystals. Thus, they are widely used
in industry as abrasives. Synthetic nano-polycrystalline
diamonds find additional uses in hi-tech applications. However,
recently, gem-quality lab-grown nano-polycrystalline diamonds
are entering the scene. One specimen, a transparent brownishyellow 5 mm-diameter sphere, consists of a tightly-packed mass
of nano-crystals, forming a nearly flawless gem. The sphere
fluoresces a bright reddish-orange in long-wave UV light, with
a weaker reaction under short-wave UV. Published sources
indicate that the diamond was created from graphite at extremely
high temperatures and pressures. The tightly interlocking nature
of the miniscule crystallites greatly reduces or nearly eliminates
breakage along grain boundaries. Furthermore, because of the
random orientation of the individual grains, no particular
cleavage direction is favored. These characteristics make nanopolycrystalline diamonds much stronger than their single crystal
counterparts, opening the door to novel applications.
This chart summarizes the members of the garnet group that are most
important as gemstones. The aluminum garnets are normally red in color
with a higher specific gravity and hardness. The calcium members are
usually green in color and have a lower hardness.
The ability to fabricate transparent, very slightly included
diamonds opens a new chapter in the jewelry trade. One
brownish-yellow, slightly included 0.88 ct round brilliant, ~6
mm across, appears fairly clear to the naked eye, but under
closer inspection reveals faint patchy clouds and color zoning;
also some evidence of strain under crossed polarized light. The
stone absorbs strongly in the blue region of visible light, which
causes the brownish-yellow color. Two small absorption peaks
appear at 612 and 667 nm, whose origin remains to be
determined.
Further Reading
Skalwold, E. A., 2012. Nano-polycrystalline diamond sphere: a
gemologist’s perspective. Gems & Gemology, Summer, 2012,
p. 128-131.
Skalwold, E. A. et al., 2012. Characterization of a synthetic
nano-polycrystalline diamond gemstone. Gems & Gemology,
Fall, 2012, p. 188-192.
1
But not necessarily at the nano-scale.
4
Jade’s Journey Marked by Drugs and Death
By Dan Levin
MYITKYINA, Myanmar — At 16, the gem trader’s son set out for
the jade mines to seek his fortune in the precious stone that China
craves. But a month in, the teenager, Sang Aung Bau Hkum, was
feeding his own addiction: heroin, the drug of choice among the
men who work the bleak terrain of gouged earthen pits, shared
needles and dwindling hope here in the jungles of northern
Myanmar.
Three years later he finally found what he had come for — a
jade rock “as green as a summer leaf.” He spent some of the
$6,000 that a Chinese trader paid him on a motorcycle, a cellphone
and gambling.
“The rest disappeared into my veins,” he said, tapping the
crook in his left arm as dozens of other gaunt miners in varying
states of withdrawal passed the time at a rudimentary rehabilitation
clinic here. “The Chinese bosses know we’re addicted to heroin,
but they don’t care. Their minds are filled with jade.”
Mr. Sang Aung Bau Hkum, now 24, is just one face of a trade
— like blood diamonds in Africa — that is turning good fortune
into misery.
Driven by an insatiable demand from the growing Chinese
middle class, Myanmar’s jade industry is booming and should be
showering the nation, one of the world’s poorest, with
unprecedented prosperity. Instead, much of the wealth it generates
remains in control of elite members of the military, the rebel
leaders fighting them for greater autonomy and the Chinese
financiers with whom both sides collude to smuggle billions of
dollars’ worth of the gem into China, according to jade miners,
mining companies and international human rights groups.
Such rampant corruption has not only robbed the government
of billions in tax revenue for rebuilding after decades of military
rule, it has also helped finance a bloody ethnic conflict and
unleashed an epidemic of heroin use and H.I.V. infection among
the Kachin minority who work the mines.
The drug and jade trades have become a toxic mix, with
heroin — made from opium poppies that long ago turned Myanmar
into a top producer of illicit drugs — keeping a pliant work force
toiling in harsh conditions as the Burmese authorities and Chinese
business people turn a blind eye.
At a time when Myanmar is experimenting with democratic
governance after nearly 50 years of military dictatorship, its
handling of the jade industry has become a test of the new civilian
leaders and their commitment to supporting human rights and
rooting out corruption, as well as an early check on whether they
will reject the former junta’s kleptocratic dealings with China.
So far, experts say, they have failed.
May 2015
Washington is worried enough about the link between jade
and violence — and the effect on democratic change — that it kept
in place a ban on the gem from Myanmar, also known as Burma,
even after it suspended almost every other sanction against the
country since the civilian government came to power in 2011. But
critics say the sanctions are useless because China attaches no such
conditions.
“The multibillion-dollar jade business should be driving
peaceful development in Kachin and Myanmar as a whole,” said
Mike Davis from Global Witness, an anticorruption organization.
“Instead it is empowering the same elite that brought the country
to its knees and poses the biggest threat to peace and democratic
reform.”
Poverty Amid Riches
The fountainhead of Myanmar’s jade wealth is here in the
mountains of Kachin State, which is rich in natural resources and
poor in just about everything else. The country’s northernmost
territory, Kachin
shares a long border
with China and is
home to the Kachin
ethnic group, a
largely Christian
minority with
ambitions to gain
more autonomy.
Myitkyina, the
down-and-out state
capital, i s the
gateway to the most
active mining region,
containing what
experts say is the
world’s biggest and
most valuable trove
of jade. With its
broken sidewalks,
stray dogs and
cemeteries littered
with syringes, Myitkyina is a potent symbol of the region’s ills.
The city’s tea shops have a thriving illegal side business in selling
heroin, one of the few trades that have grown alongside the jade
industry.
“In every house, there is an addict,” said Gareng Bang Aung,
a local heroin user.
The city is the closest Westerners can get to the mining area,
Hpakant. The government says it keeps the area closed because of
sporadic fighting with the Kachin rebel army, but activists see a
darker purpose: to hide the illegal jade and drug trades flourishing
there. The only foreigners allowed past the military checkpoints,
they say, are the Chinese who run the mines or go there to buy
gems.
The lack of access adds to the mysteries of the jade industry,
whose inner workings are deliberately obscured. Even the simplest
information is not publicly available — including which
companies operate the mines and how many are Chinese-run or
financed despite laws banning foreign ownership. But interviews
with jade miners and executives in Myitkyina, and with gem
traders, diplomats and nongovernmental organizations elsewhere,
reveal a dizzyingly corrupt and brutal industry funded almost
completely by Chinese trade.
May 2015
Their descriptions of the harsh conditions at the mines were
corroborated by rare footage filmed there by a local journalist hired
by The New York Times.
The video from inside the checkpoints shows lush rolling hills
scarred by craters that descend for hundreds of feet into pits.
There, hundreds of men worked in the searing heat, picking
through rocks with rudimentary shovels, or their hands, in search
of the gem.
In some cases, the miners shoot water from high-powered
hoses to break up the rock walls, a dangerous practice that
sometimes triggers landslides.
Also visible in the footage: an open-air heroin shooting
gallery, hard up against a mine.
Corruption Fuels Conflict
Myanmar’s jade industry took off in the 1980s after the
introduction of market reforms in China. For the first time since
Mao Zedong began banning private enterprise in 1949,
entrepreneurs betting that the gemstone would become big
business in China started jumping into the trade. Their financing
helped build an industry that churns out the Buddha figurines and
thick bracelets that have become status symbols for China’s middle
class. The burgeoning market transformed the Kachin insurgency,
which had started in 1961 as a fight mostly about political
independence, into a raging battle that extends to natural resources.
A 1994 cease-fire stopped the violence, but gave the Burmese
junta and its Chinese backers control over the best tracts in
Hpakant.
The cease-fire fell apart in 2011, with jade fueling the conflict
by funneling money to both sides. Local news media say about
120,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that included
military airstrikes in Kachin; the death toll remains in dispute.
In an interview, Dau Hka, a senior official with the political
wing of the rebel Kachin Independence Army, described a
sophisticated revenue collection system in which mining
companies that want to operate in areas under the rebels’ control
“donate” money to them, providing half their operating budget.
“The donations aren’t exactly legal,” he acknowledged.
The K.I.A. also makes money by working with Chinese
companies to smuggle jade through the jungle into China,
according to activists and a Chinese jade importer. “They’ll call us
beforehand, and we’ll come in a convoy to pick up the goods,”
said the trader, who would give only his surname, Chun. The
rebels, he added, demand cash on delivery.
Yet the fighters’ spoils pale in comparison to those enjoyed by
the powerful Burmese military elite, whose companies receive the
choicest tracts of mining land from the government, according to
miners and international rights groups. Like the K.I.A., some
military officers are also involved in smuggling, extracting bribes
to allow the illicit practice, activists say.
“The top dogs are the Burmese military,” said Mr. Davis of
Global Witness, which has investigated the Burmese jade trade.
Perhaps half or more of the jade that is mined, those who
study the industry say, vanishes into the black market. The
Ministry of Mines, in an email response to detailed questions,
denied that smuggling is a major problem. Although official jade
sales generate significant tax revenue, David Dapice of Harvard
University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and
Innovation, which did an extensive study of the jade trade,
estimated that the government is losing billions a year to illegal
trading. Possibly the greater tragedy, however, is the heroin
epidemic ravaging a new generation of Kachin.
5
Heroin’s High Toll
For decades, heroin was rare in Kachin State. The surge in the
jade trade changed all that, creating a market for drugs among the
thousands of Kachin laborers who flocked to the mines seeking an
escape from poverty.
But Ze Hkaung Lazum, 27, said the mines proved to be a trap.
Heroin, he said, is sold in bamboo huts “like vegetables in a
market” for between $4 and $8 a hit. Miners squat in the open,
next to piles of used needles, with syringes hanging from their
arms. If the drug fails to take the workers’ meager earnings, the
prostitutes waiting nearby are happy to oblige for $6 per 20-minute
session. Within months, Mr. Ze Hkaung Lazum was a frequent
customer of both.
Some miners, like Bum Hkrang, a 24-year-old recovering
addict, say they need the drug to steel themselves for the
backbreaking and dangerous work their Burmese and Chinese
bosses demand; others say they simply fell into addiction because
the drug was so available, with some heroin dealers accepting jade
as payment.
“Try digging all day with an iron rod and see how you feel,”
he said, adding that he had abandoned his university studies for the
promise of fast riches. Heroin, he discovered, gave him enough
energy to work 24 hours straight.
Miners say at least four out of five workers are habitual drug
users. Users who overdose are buried near the mines, amid groves
of bamboo.
Over time, heroin abuse spilled into the broader population.
Like many locals, Tang Goon, who works on an antidrug
project, believes the government is distributing heroin to weaken
the ethnic insurgency, with the military allowing pushers past their
checkpoints. “Heroin is their weapon,” he said.
But whether the trade is driven by politics or simple greed, the
toll has been devastating.
Kachin activists estimate that a sizable majority of Kachin
youths are addicts; the World Health Organization has said about
30 percent of injecting drug users in Myitkyina have contracted
H.I.V.
With virtually no funding from a central government focused
on other priorities, the Kachin rely on church rehabilitation centers
that preach a spiritual, if controversial, solution to addiction.
At one, the Change in Christ center outside Myitkyina, the
founder, Thang Raw, runs a treatment program based on rapturous
hymnal sessions and baptismal-like dunks in a concrete water tank
that are meant to soothe the agony of withdrawal.
The treatment did little to help Mung Hkwang, 21, who
despite the sweltering heat lay shivering recently inside the
center’s thatch-roofed dormitory. His ankle, tattooed with a
marijuana leaf, was shackled to his bed to keep him from running
away to feed his habit.
“It ruined my life and destroyed my education,” he said.
Just weeks later, Mr. Mung Hkwang ran away and died from
a heroin overdose.
The Hand of China
There are plenty of culprits in Myanmar’s illicit jade and drug
trades. But many human rights activists reserve their harshest
criticism for China, which they say is content to profit from the
mounting chaos that has engulfed Myanmar’s jade industry.
“China prioritizes naked greed over any concern for the local
population or how the jade is extracted,” said David Mathieson, a
senior researcher on Myanmar for Human Rights Watch.
Jade has fired the Chinese imagination for thousands of years.
According to legend, the birth of Confucius was prophesied by a
6
unicorn who gave his mother a jade tablet heralding his destiny. To
this day, many Chinese believe the stone wards off misfortune and
heals the body.
“Jade, from ancient to modern times, is a symbol of grace to
Chinese people,” said Zhi Feina, 34, a civil servant and repeat
customer at the Beijing Colorful Yunnan Company, an opulent
three-story jade emporium in Beijing where she was trying on
bracelets.
The state-affiliated Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of
China estimates that annual sales of jade are as high as $5 billion,
more than half of which comes from Burmese jade.
In a rare admission, China’s ambassador to Myanmar, Yang
Houlan, confirmed that some Chinese are breaking Burmese laws,
but he said Beijing was trying to clamp down.
“There are some businessmen engaged in illegal activities
who, attracted by outsize profits, cross the border to mine or
smuggle jade,” he said in an email, adding that the two nations
have stepped up cooperation on border controls and
money-laundering investigations. “But there are some parts of this
illicit trade that, like drugs, can’t be stamped out.”
Activists dispute the notion that the governments are serious
about cracking down. Without a stronger push for reform from
China, they say, they have little hope that conditions will improve.
So far, there does not appear to be an appetite for major
change. During an interview, Shi Hongyue, vice secretary general
of the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China, refused to
even discuss the ills plaguing the Burmese jade trade.
When pressed about heroin at the mines, Mr. Shi was
dismissive. “Honestly,” he said, “the amount of drugs they’re
using isn’t really that much.”
Source: New York Times Dec. 1, 2014
Tales from a Martian Rock
By Susan Brown for UCSD News
A new analysis of a Martian rock that meteorite hunters
plucked from an Antarctic ice field 30 years ago this month reveals
a record of the planet’s climate billions of years ago, back when
water likely washed across its surface and any life that ever formed
there might have emerged.
Scientists from the University of California, San Diego,
NASA and the Smithsonian Institution report detailed
measurements of minerals within the meteorite in the early online
edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
this week.
“Minerals within the meteorite hold a snapshot of the planet’s
ancient chemistry, of interactions between water and atmosphere,”
said Robina Shaheen, a project scientist at UC San Diego and the
lead author of the report.
The unlovely stone, which fell to Earth 13 thousand years ago,
looked a lot like a potato and has quite a history. Designated
ALH84001, it is the oldest meteorite we have from Mars, a chunk
of solidified magma from a volcano that erupted four billion years
ago. Since then something liquid, probably water, seeped through
pores in the rock and deposited globules of carbonates and other
minerals.
The carbonates vary subtly depending on the sources of their
carbon and oxygen atoms. Both carbon and oxygen occur in
heavier and lighter versions, or isotopes. The relative abundances
of isotopes forms a chemical signature that careful analysis and
sensitive measurements can uncover.
Mars’s atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide but contains
some ozone. The balance of oxygen isotopes within ozone are
strikingly weird with enrichment of heavy isotopes through a
May 2015
physical chemical phenomenon first described by co-author Mark
Thiemens, a professor of chemistry at UC San Diego, and
colleagues 25 years ago.
Robina Shaheen searches a globe of Mars for the likely origin of the Mars rock she
and colleagues analyzed for traces left by the planet’s early climate. Image courtesy
Susan Brown, UC San Diego.
“When ozone reacts with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it
transfers its isotopic weirdness to the new molecule,” said
Shaheen, who investigated this process of oxygen isotope
exchange as a graduate student at the University of Heidelberg in
Germany. When carbon dioxide reacts with water to make
carbonates, the isotopic signature continues to be preserved.
The degree of isotopic weirdness in the carbonates reflects
how much water and ozone was present when they formed. It’s a
record of climate 3.9 billion years ago, locked in a stable mineral.
The more water, the smaller the weird ozone signal.
This team measured a pronounced ozone signal in the
carbonates within the meteorite, suggesting that although Mars had
water back then, vast oceans were unlikely. Instead, the early
Martian landscape probably held smaller seas.
“What’s also new is our simultaneous measurements of carbon
isotopes on the same samples. The mix of carbon isotopes suggest
that the different minerals within the meteorite had separate
origins,” Shaheen said. “They tell us the story of the chemical and
isotopic compositions of the atmospheric carbon dioxide.”
ALH84001 held tiny tubes of carbonate that some scientists
saw as potential evidence of microbial life, though a biological
origin for the structures has been discounted. On December 16,
NASA announced another potential whiff of Martian life in the
form of methane sniffed by the rover Curiosity.
Carbonates can be deposited by living things that scavenge the
minerals to build their skeletons, but that is not the case for the
minerals measured by this team.
“The carbonate we see is not from living things,” Shaheen
said. “It has anomalous oxygen isotopes that tell us this carbonate
is abiotic.”
By measuring the isotopes in multiple ways, the chemists
found carbonates depleted in carbon-13 and enriched in
oxygen-18. That is, Mars’s atmosphere in this era, a period of great
bombardment, had much less carbon-13 than it does today.
The change in relative abundances of carbon and oxygen
isotopes may have occurred through extensive loss of Martian
atmosphere. A thicker atmosphere would likely have been required
for liquid water to flow on the planet’s chilly surface.
May 2015
“We now have a much deeper and specific insight into the
earliest oxygen-water system in the solar system,” Thiemens said.
“The question that remains is when did planets, Earth and Mars,
get water, and in the case of Mars, where did it go? We’ve made
great progress, but still deep mysteries remain.”
Planetary scientists Paul Niles of NASA’s Johnson Space
Flight Center in Houston and Catherine Corrigan of the
Smithsonian Institution, and former UC San Diego chemistry
student Kenneth Chong, now at California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona, co-authored the paper.
Thiemens and Shaheen thank the National Science
Foundation’s Atmospheric Chemistry division, which provided
partial support for Shaheen’s work on this project. Funding was
also provided by NASA’s Mars Fundamental Research program
(to Niles), and the Zonta International Foundation and Ohio Space
Grant Consortium (to Corrigan).
Source: Marsdaily.com from December 26, 2014
7
“People have noticed differences in the way seismic waves
travel through the outer parts of the inner core and its innermost
reaches before, but never before have they suggested that the
alignment of crystalline iron that makes up this region is
completely askew compared to the outermost parts,” Dr. Simon
Redfern, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of
Cambridge in England, who was not involved in this research, told
BBC News. “If this is true, it would imply that something very
substantial happened to flip the orientation of the core to turn the
alignment of crystals in the inner core north-south as is seen today
in its outer parts.”
Scientists Find Big Surprise In Earth’s Core
An international team of researchers has discovered one of
Earth’s deepest, darkest secrets: our planet’s inner core – once
thought to be a ball of solid iron – has a hidden inner core of its
own. And this so-called “inner-inner core” seems to have some
very peculiar properties.
An illustration of the earth’s inner-inner core, which has crystals aligned in a different
direction than the inner core.
Illinois geology professor Xioadong Song led a research team that used seismic
waves to look at the Earth’s inner core. They found that the inner core has
surprisingly complex structure and behaviors.
“The fact that we have two regions that are distinctly different
may tell us something about how the inner core has been
evolving,” Dr. Xiaodong Song, a professor of geology at the
University of Illinois and co-author of a new paper about the
discovery, said in a written statement. “For example, over the
history of the earth, the inner core might have had a very dramatic
change in its deformation regime. It might hold the key to how the
planet has evolved. We are right in the center – literally, the center
of the Earth.”
For their study, the Illinois researchers and their counterparts
at China’s Nanjing University measured how seismic waves
resonated and traveled through the earth in the aftermath of
earthquakes that occurred between 1992 and 2012. Analyzing an
earthquake’s coda (the train of seismic waves that follow that
quake) offers clues about what’s inside Earth.
“The basic idea of the method has been around for a while,
and people have used it for other kinds of studies near the surface.
But we are looking all the way through the center of the earth,”
Song said in the statement.
What did the researchers find? The seismic wave data
suggests that iron crystals in the innermost regions of the inner
core point east-west, whereas iron crystals in the inner core’s outer
regions point north-south. The researchers deduced that there must
be a distinct inner-inner core that takes up about half the diameter
of the whole inner core.
The study was published online in the journal Nature Geoscience
on Feb. 9.
8
May 2015
Collector’s Series – “The 100" (On a Spring Break! – Back Next Month!)
Hot Universe
So maybe the real answer to Fermi’s paradox is climate
change. Adam Frank’s piece in the New York Times put it this
way:
From climate change to resource depletion, our evolution
into a globe-spanning industrial culture is forcing us through
the narrow bottleneck of a sustainability crisis. In the wake of
this realization, new and sobering answers to Fermi’s
question now seem possible.
Maybe we’re not the only ones to hit a sustainability
bottleneck. Maybe not everyone – maybe no one – makes it
to the other side.
An interesting thought. While we can’t assume life on other
planets employs the same chemistry as our M-class planet, with
its nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, the issue of energy would still
come up. In any variety of energy-providing chemical reactions,
organisms would still generate and have to deal with waste
products. As Frank puts it, “There are no planetary free lunches.”
It’s notable that Earth’s atmosphere has already undergone
a major shift due to the activities of organisms. Over three
billion years of photosynthesizing bacteria transformed the
atmosphere from oxygen depleted to our current 21 percent. The
oxygen you breathe now is the waste product of biology that
stripped carbon from oxygen to form carbohydrates, some of
which were later altered into the hydrocarbons now spewing out
the tailpipes of stretch Humvees.
On a vast scale our species pushes this in the other direction,
taking carbon and recombining it with oxygen. So far we’ve
been fortunate that our carbon dioxide waste is absorbed in the
oceans and used by many other things – plants, diatoms, mineral
weathering –meaning anthropogenic increases have not been as
steep as they could have been. But those natural reservoirs are
not infinite, and the rate of carbon dioxide increase is
dramatically accelerating. From 1965 to 1974, the rate of carbon
dioxide increase averaged 1.06 ppm per year; from 2005 to
2014, the rate doubled to 2.11 ppm per year.
As we continue this planetary-scale geoengineering
experiment of pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and
seeing what happens, it’s worth considering that maybe this path
has already been taken by predecessors a long time ago, in
galaxies far, far away. Why don’t we hear them now?
Maybe Adam Frank’s proposal is right, and our current
climate crisis is so intractable that other civilizations have tried
and failed and collapsed. But we humans did get through the
most dangerous phase of the nuclear era, which for so long
seemed guaranteed to end us all. At the very least we have the
potential to get through our climate conundrum, which, like the
nuclear danger, is a failing of our political systems, not our
scientific knowledge. Just as Neo in The Matrix had five
predecessors who failed, the universe might need a few tries
before finally solving the difficult problem of maintaining a
civilization without destroying its planet.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com April 2, 2015
Steven Newton is Programs and Policy Director for the National
Center for Science Education
Dealer Donations for the June ‘15 Benefit Auction
The following list includes all the donations that the March 2015
NYC Show dealers made to the Club this year:
Amazon Imports
(2) Faceted Sapphires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brazil
Aurora Minerals
Fluorite Turtle Carving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
AYS International
Hematite Bead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Bary Gems
Peridot & Silver Ring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
John Betts Fine Minerals
Large Scolecite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
China South Seas (Carolyn Lee)
Gemstone Pendant.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
Crystal Circle
(12) Worldwide Minerals! (Tsumeb!!).. . . . . . . . . . . Misc
The Essence
Chrysocolla and Vorbothite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chile
Excalibur Minerals
(10) Worldwide Minerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Exotic Russian Minerals
Marcasite/Limonite Pseudomorph.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
Joe Garriti Gems
(4) Moonstones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Gems Art Studio
(5) Misc Russian Minerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
Highland Rock & Fossil
(4) WW Specimens and Lapidary Artwork.. . . . . . . . . Misc
Khyber Minerals
Polished Serpentine.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pakistan
Mahalo Minerals
Fluorite Obelisk; Tourmaline in Matrix. . . . . . China/Brazil
Malachite & Gems of Africa
Malachite Pyramid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Congo
Margola Minerals
Mounted Sliced Amethyst Stalactite. . . . . . . . . Uruguay
Alfredo Petrov Rare Minerals
Copper ps. “Progression”.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bolivia
Raj Minerals
Stilbite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Rocko Minerals
Herkimer Diamond Scepter.. . . . . . . . . . . . New York State
Howard & Betsy Schlansker
Large Labradorite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Madagascar
Somethings
Huge Jewelry Selection.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
Herkimer Diamond Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . By M. Walter
May 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
Crazy for Crystal Clear . . . Crystal
Good ol’ quartz; the second most abundant mineral on the
planet. Only feldspar takes the lead in our earth’s plentiful
components. This copious material has been the stuff of jewelry
and carving for centuries.
monochromatic and neutral look to their accessories will
embrace this ever popular stone with its broad updated vibe.
Chinese Carved Natural Rock Crystal Scholar’s Brush Rest.
Mark Schneider Quartz Cufflinks, Courtesy Mark Schneider Design.
Although celebrated for the profuse variety of colors it has,
quartz also comes in pure colorless (called rock crystal) and
translucent milky quartz which can be an attractive jewel for
modern designers to embrace. Actually, milky quartz is probably
the most common variety of crystalline quartz. Interestingly, its
milky effect is the result of minute gas, liquid, or both trapped
within the crystal, rendering a dreamy cloud-like appearance to
the stone.
Rock Crystal Casket, Burgundy, Late 1400s
Crystal Cluster from Tibet.
Both colorless and milky quartz are found in imaginative
designers creations. Its interesting, appealing qualities make it
ideally suited for selections in both stylish manufactured jewelry
lines and couture one-offs. Your customers who prefer the
Herkimer “Diamonds” (Quartz), Upstate New York
10
May 2015
Russian Meteor’s Origin Remains Mysterious
Mysterious Metal Balls Found on Ocean Floor
By Elizabeth Howell
Two years after an asteroid exploded over Russia and injured
more than 1,200 people, the origin of the space rock still puzzles
scientists.
What are those things?
Scientists dredging the seafloor in the Atlantic Ocean several
hundred miles east of Barbados in January were surprised when
their sled got snagged – and, after freeing it from the seafloor, even
more surprised at what it brought up.
The sled’s nets were filled with heavy metal orbs ranging in
size from golf balls to softballs. Images captured by the sled
showed an entire field of what turned out to be manganese nodules
– researchers say it’s the largest such deposit ever found in the
Atlantic.
Trail of the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013
The 66-foot-wide (20 meters) asteroid broke up over the city
of Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013, shattering windows
across the area and sending many people to the hospital with
lacerations from the flying glass.
Originally, astronomers thought that the Chelyabinsk meteor
came from a 1.24-mile-wide (2 kilometers) near-Earth asteroid
called 1999 NC43. But a closer look at the asteroid’s orbit and
likely mineral composition, gained from spectroscopy, suggests
few similarities between it and the Russian meteor.
“These two bodies shared similar orbits around the sun, and
initial studies suggested even similar compositions,” lead study
author Vishnu Reddy, a scientist with the nonprofit Planetary
Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said in a statement.
However, “the composition of [the] Chelyabinsk meteorite
that was recovered after the event is similar to a common type of
meteorite called LL chondrites,” he added. “The near-Earth
asteroid has a composition that is distinctly different from this.”
More generally, Reddy and his colleagues’ work showed that
it is difficult to make predictions about what particular asteroid
could have shed pieces that slammed into Earth. Because most
asteroids are so small and their orbits are “chaotic,” it’s hard to
make a firm link, the authors said.
A paper based on the research appears in the journal Icarus.
The Russian meteor explosion has generated a great deal of
interest in the search for potentially hazardous asteroids, sparking
the creation of a new asteroid warning center at the European
Space Agency, among other initiatives.
In a statement this week, the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit
organization that seeks to reduce the threat from asteroids, urged
agencies worldwide to step up their search for dangerous space
rocks. The group plans to add to that effort with the
asteroid-hunting Sentinel Space Telescope, which B612 hopes to
launch in 2018.
“The fact of the matter is that asteroid impacts can be
prevented using technology we can employ right now,” B612
co-founder Ed Lu, a former space shuttle astronaut, said in a
statement.
“And unlike other potentially global-scale catastrophic events,
the solution is nearly purely a technical one, and with a relatively
small and known cost,” Lu added. “So as my friend, former Apollo
9 astronaut and co-founder of the B612 Foundation Rusty
Schweickart says, ‘Let’s get on with it.’”
Source: Space.com from February 15, 2015
The manganese nodules, discovered in January during a recent scientific
expedition in the Atlantic, are up to 10 million years old.
“Manganese nodules are found in all oceans,” Dr. Colin
Devey, a geologist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean
Research in Kiel, Germany and the expedition’s chief scientist,
said in a written statement. “But the largest deposits are known to
occur in the Pacific. Nodules of this size and density in the Atlantic
are not known.”
The nodules were found during a 42-day expedition through
Jan. 26 aboard the German research vessel SONNE, which
explored the ocean between South America and Africa, Live
Science reported.
Some of the nodules may date back as far as 10 million years,
as they tend to grow one to five millimeters every million years.
That means they may provide insight into Earth’s ancient
environmental past, according to the researchers.
As to how the nodules form, the researchers said that’s still a
bit of a mystery.
Along with manganese, the nodules consist of copper, nickel
and cobalt – and may contain the rare earth elements used in smart
phones and other high-tech electronics. For that reason, they’re
raising a debate over the risks and potential for deep-sea mining.
“Many questions about potential ore mining in the deep sea,
however, are still unanswered,” Dr. Matthias Haeckel, a
GEOMAR researcher who is coordinating a three-year project to
explore the potential environmental impact of deep-sea mining,
said in a written statement. “We should get to know the deep sea
better before we start to change it on potentially large scale.”
Source: The Huffington Post from February 19, 2015
May 2015
KA-BOOM! Scientists Solve Mystery of Earth’s
Tectonic Plates
11
Scientists Sound Alert Over Mysterious Holes
Scientists have long known that the Earth’s crust consists of at
least 15 tectonic plates–continent-sized slabs of rock on the surface of
the Earth that shift about to create mountains, volcanoes, and
earthquake zones. But the exact mechanism by which the plates move
has remained a mystery.
Until now.
A new study suggests that the plates glide about on a
six-mile-thick hidden channel of “soft” rock located between the base
of the plates and the upper portion of the Earth’s mantle (the layer of
molten rock above the planet’s core), Live Science reported.
“The idea that Earth’s surface consists of a mosaic of moving
plates is a well-established scientific paradigm, but it had never been
clear about what actually moves the plates around,” study co-author
Dr. Tim Stern, a professor of geography, environment and earth
sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, said in
a written statement. “To work this out requires an understanding of
what happens at the bottom of a tectonic plate.”
Scientists were baffled last July when they discovered three
giant holes in the ground in the Yamal Peninsula in northern
Siberia.
This Map Shows 15 of the Largest Plates
To glimpse the underbelly of a tectonic plate, the researchers
used dynamite explosions to generate seismic waves across the
southern part of New Zealand’s North Island, which sits above the
so-called Pacific Plate. The researchers mapped the waves as they
traveled through the plate and then used the data to create what Stern
called “the most detailed image yet of an oceanic tectonic plate.”
The data showed that the seismic waves slowed abruptly at the
base of the plate–which suggests that they must have hit a hidden
layer of jelly-like rock, Cosmos magazine reported.
The researchers hypothesize that the soft rock creates a slippery
base upon which plates drift when they are pushed or pulled–though
exactly what is doing the pushing or pulling is still up for debate.
According to Cosmos magazine, some scientists think that
extruding magma or slowly creeping convection currents may push
the plates apart. Others think that as a thick, heavy plate dives beneath
a thinner plate, it pulls on the plate behind it–and the jelly-like rock
found at the base of a tectonic plate may lend support to the pulling
theory.
“Understanding this boundary between the base of cold, rigid
tectonic plates and the underlying hot, convecting mantle underneath
is central to our knowledge of plate tectonics and the very formation
and evolution of our planet,” Stern said in the statement.
Now, with the help of satellite imagery, researchers have
located four additional craters–and they believe there may be
dozens more in the region. That has them calling for an urgent
investigation to protect residents living in the area.
“I am sure that there are more craters on Yamal, we just need
to search for them... I suppose there could be 20 to 30 craters
more,” Prof. Vasily Bogoyavlensky, a corresponding member of
the Russian Academy of Sciences and deputy director of the
Moscow-based Oil and Gas Research Institute, told The Siberian
Times. “It is important not to scare people, but to understand that
it is a very serious problem and we must research this.”
Researchers ventured deep inside one of the holes last
November, collecting data in an effort to learn why the holes
formed. The leading theory is that the holes were created by gas
explosions triggered by underground heat or by rising air
temperatures associated with climate change, the Siberian Times
reported last December.
Since scientists can’t predict when or where gas explosions
will occur, it’s dangerous to study them, according to
Bogoyavlensky. But he said his team is planning to launch a new
expedition, and to put stations in the area to detect earthquakes that
might strike when the craters open up.
“We need to answer now the basic questions: what areas and
under what conditions are the most dangerous?” he told the
Siberian Times. “These questions are important for safe operation
of the northern cities and infrastructure of oil and gas complexes.”
Experts in the U.S. echoed that sentiment.
Dr. Carolyn Ruppel, a research geophysicist at the Woods
Hole Field Center in Massachusetts and chief of the U.S.
Geological Survey’s Gas Hydrates Project, told The Huffington
Post in an email that she was not surprised that new holes had been
found.
Ruppel, who is not involved in the Siberian research effort,
called for more research on the holes.
“The processes that are causing them to form likely occur over
a wide area of the continuous permafrost in this part of Siberia,”
she said in the email. “Scientists should definitely conduct more
research on these features to determine the processes that cause
their formation, how they evolve with time, and whether it is
possible to predict where new ones will occur.”
See below for photos from the November’s expedition into
one of the craters.
The study was published online Feb. 5, 2015 in the journal Nature.
Source: Huffington Post Science Feb. 23, 2015
12
Crystal Comet
The “dusty snowball” theory of comets needs attention, since
there are crystals that need high temperatures to form in the
matrix of at least two.
By Stephen Smith
Recently, the composition of comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko (67P/C-G) was discussed in the scientific press. It is
only in the last few months that dust grain distribution in
67P/C-G’s coma, and an analysis of dust lost from the comet, has
been obtained. Other reports indicate a surprising result: minerals
that are normally found in conditions similar to a blast furnace are
seen in the comet. It is a significant result for Electric Universe
advocates.
May 2015
Comets, specifically, have nothing to do with an ancient
nebular cloud of cold gas and dust that became gravitationally
unstable and collapsed into the Solar System of today. Comets and
their asteroid sisters are relative newcomers to the solar family and
might have been blasted out of larger bodies by tremendously
powerful electric discharges in the recent past. They are not
“snowballs” or blobs of muddy slush, they are solid, rocky,
cratered, electrically charged objects. Whatever water or hydroxyl
compounds that can be found in cometary comas is created there,
since ionized oxygen from the comet reacts with hydrogen ions
streaming out from the Sun. No “jets” of water vapor spew from
comets, and no icy plains have ever been observed. It is electric
effects that are seen—discharges and arcs form the comet
phenomena.
Source: Thunderbolts.info posted on February 13, 2015
Fabergé Pearl Egg Unveiled
Photogenic comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS
Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
By way of background, NASA scientists launched the Stardust
mission on February 7, 1999. Its primary task was to collect dust
particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 and then return to Earth.
After a five year journey, Stardust finally intersected Wild 2's orbit
on January 2, 2004, passing through its coma at the metaphorical
hair’s breadth distance of 240 kilometers. The aerogel dust-capture
system worked perfectly, scooping up fine bits of rock and
trapping them inside for their return journey to Earth on January
15, 2006.
After the aerogel was delivered to a team of researchers for
analysis, the surprises began. Minerals such as anorthite and
forsterite were found embedded in the aerogel—compounds that
form only at extremely high temperatures—along with olivine.
Perplexed scientists wondered how an object that was supposed to
be a remnant from the early nebular cloud out of which the Solar
System condensed, and that should have been kept in frozen
hibernation in a theoretical “Oort cloud” billions of kilometers
from the Sun, could exhibit crystalline structures that would
require a blast furnace to create.
Stardust mission team leader Donald Brownlee said at the
time, “In the coldest part of the solar system we’ve found samples
that formed at extremely high temperatures.”
Electric Universe advocates see things differently. Stars and
comets share common characteristics. They are both born of
similar parentage: Stars are nodes in vast electrical circuits
connected by Birkeland current filaments within galaxies, while
planets, moons, asteroids, and comets are electrically charged,
existing within a radial electric current that surrounds stars like our
own Sun.
In celebration of the forthcoming centenary of the last Fabergé
Imperial Eggs ever delivered, Fabergé has crafted an extraordinary
masterpiece in collaboration with the Al-Fardan family, one of the
world’s most renowned collectors of pearls.
The Fabergé Pearl Egg is the first
egg created in the “Imperial Class” since
1917 where the Fabergé name and the
Fabergé family have been united.
The Fabergé Pearl Egg draws
inspiration from the formation of a pearl
within an oyster, and the egg’s
mother-of-pearl exterior opens to reveal
a unique grey pearl of 12.17 carats,
sourced from the Arabian Gulf and
exhibiting exceptional purity and a highly
unusual shade of grey, the company said in a press release.
Harnessing 20 highly skilled workmasters, the objet embodies
139 fine white pearls with a golden lustre, 3,305 diamonds, carved
rock crystal and mother-of-pearl shell set on white and yellow
gold. Each pearl adorning the Fabergé Pearl Egg was hand-selected
by Hussain Ibrahim Al-Fardan from his private collection. An
ingenious mechanism enables the entire outer shell to rotate on its
base, simultaneously opening in six sections to unveil its treasure.
The Pearl Egg is accompanied by a Fabergé necklace of white
pearls, diamonds and mother-of-pearl shell featuring a scallop
motif, and finished with a 19.44-carat white pearl drop.
Hussain Ibrahim Al-Fardan, chairman of the Alfardan Group,
commented, “I have a passion for natural pearls and it took me
many years to build my current collection gathering some of the
most extraordinary pearls in the world. Fabergé has a great history
in making jewellery for royalty and a truly precious Fabergé Egg
is a luxury treasure and the symbol of a long-gone era of opulence.
This is why I partnered with Fabergé to combine these two
traditional treasures: the Fabergé Egg and natural Arabian Gulf
pearls, to create an exceptional piece.”
Fabergé President Robert Benvenuto added, “We are delighted
to be sharing this historic moment – the unveiling of the Fabergé
Pearl Egg – with Mr. Hussain and Mr. Ali Al-Fardan in Doha. It
is a distinct pleasure and privilege for me and the Fabergé team to
have collaborated with them in sourcing some of the finest pearls
in the world for this creation.”
The Fabergé Pearl Egg is being showcased at the six-day
Doha Watch and Jewellery Exhibition, which kicked off on
February 23.
Source: JewelleryNewsAsia.com February 25, 2015
May 2015
Second Natural Quasicrystal Found in Ancient
Meteorite
By Staff Writers
A team from Princeton University and the University of
Florence in Italy has discovered a quasicrystal – so named because
of its unorthodox arrangement of atoms – in a 4.5-billion-year-old
meteorite from a remote region of northeastern Russia, bringing to
two the number of natural quasicrystals ever discovered. Prior to
the team finding the first natural quasicrystal in 2009, researchers
thought that the structures were too fragile and energetically
unstable to be formed by natural processes.
The top panel shows the symmetry of the first natural quasicrystal, icosahedrite. The
lower panel shows the symmetry of the recently discovered quasicrystal, which has not
yet been named. Image courtesy Paul Steinhardt et al.
“The finding of a second naturally occurring quasicrystal
confirms that these materials can form in nature and are stable over
cosmic time scales,” said Paul Steinhardt, Princeton’s Albert
Einstein Professor in Science and a professor of physics, who led
the study with Luca Bindi of the University of Florence. The team
published the finding in the March 13 issue of the journal
Scientific Reports.
13
The discovery raises the possibility that other types of
quasicrystals can be formed in nature, according to Steinhardt.
Quasicrystals are very hard, have low friction, and don’t conduct
heat very well – making them good candidates for applications
such as protective coatings on items ranging from airplanes to
non-stick cookware.
The newly discovered quasicrystal, which is yet to be named,
has a structure that resembles flat 10-sided disks stacked in a
column. This type of structure is impossible in ordinary crystals,
in which atoms are packed closely together in a repeated and
orderly fashion. The difference between crystals and quasicrystals
can be visualized by imagining a tiled floor: Tiles that are 6-sided
hexagons can fit neatly against each other to cover the entire floor.
But 5-sided pentagons or 10-sided decagons laid next to each will
result in gaps between tiles. “The structure is saying ‘I am not a
crystal, but on the other hand, I am not random either,’” Steinhardt
said.
Crystals with these forbidden symmetries had been created in
the laboratory, but it wasn’t until 2009 that Bindi, Steinhardt, Nan
Yao of Princeton and Peter Lu of Harvard reported the first natural
quasicrystal, now known as icosahedrite, in a rock that had been
collected years before in Chukotka, Russia.
To confirm that this quasicrystal, which has the five-fold
symmetry of a soccer ball, was indeed of natural origins,
Steinhardt and a team of scientists including geologists from the
Russian Academy of Sciences traveled to the region in 2011 and
returned with additional samples which they analyzed at the
University of Florence; the Smithsonian Museum in Washington,
DC; the California Institute of Technology; and the Princeton
Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM)
Imaging and Analysis Center.
The researchers confirmed that the quasicrystal originated in
an extraterrestrial body that formed about 4.57 billion years ago,
which is around the time our solar system formed. They published
the results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
in 2012. “Bringing back the material and showing that it was of
natural origins was an important scientific barrier to overcome,”
Steinhardt said.
This new quasicrystal, which was found in a different grain of
the same meteorite, has 10-fold, or decagonal, symmetry. It is
made up of aluminum, nickel and iron, which normally are not
found together in the same mineral because aluminum binds
quickly to oxygen, blocking attachment to nickel and iron.
The researchers are now exploring how the mineral formed,
“We know there was a meteor impact, and that the temperature
was around 1000º to 1200º Kelvin, and that the pressure was a
hundred thousand times greater than atmospheric pressure, but that
is not enough to tell us all the details,” Steinhardt said.
“We’d like to know whether the formation of quasicrystals is
rare or is fairly frequent, how it occurs, and whether it could
happen in other solar systems. What we find out could answer
basic questions about the materials found in our universe.”
The team included, from Princeton: Nan Yao, a senior research scholar at PRISM and
director of the PRISM Imaging and Analysis Center; Chaney Lin, a graduate student in
physics; and Lincoln Hollister, professor of geosciences, emeritus, and a senior geologist.
Co-authors also included Christopher Andronicos of Purdue University; Vadim Distler, Valery
Kryachko and Marina Yudovskaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexander Kostin
of BHP Billiton; Michael Eddy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Glenn
MacPherson the Smithsonian Institution; and William Steinhardt, a graduate student at
Harvard University.
Source: spacedaily.com March 18, 2015
Dr. Paul Steinhardt delivered a memorable and fascinating talk to the
NYMC about this interesting topic at the January 2014 meeting. – Mitch
14
May 2015
2015 Members of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Alicja Andrejczuk, Scarsdale, NY
Scott Arsham, New York, NY
Carol Bailey, Flushing, NY
Linda Barrett, New York, NY
Charlotte & Lawrence Bassett, Thornwood, NY
Diane Beckman, New York, NY
Lorraine Bege, New York, NY
Russell Behnke, Meriden, CT
Mel Belsky, Brooklyn, NY
Ted Berkowitz, New York, NY
Philip Betancourt, Moorestown, NJ
John Betts, New York, NY
Alberto Bird, Bronx, NY
Richard Blackman, Randolph, NJ
Meredith Blackwell, Manalapan, NJ
Fran Bolinder, Flushing, NY
Richard Bostwick, New York, NY
John Bradley & Family, Sunnyside, NY
Barbara Brewka, Bronxville, NY
Alan Bronstein, Livingston, NJ
Pauletta Brooks, New York, NY
Kevan & Claudia Brown, New York, NY
Louis J. Brown, Bronx, NY
Otis Kidwell Burger, New York, NY
Eugene Carmichael, Kew Gardens, NY
Elaine Casani, Bohemia, NY
Andrew Chait & Family, New York, NY
Neil Chalfin, Englewood, NJ
Lawrence Conklin, Wallingford, CT
Mark Couch, New York, NY
Lillian Cozzarelli, Brooklyn, NY
Bob Cullen, Mamaroneck, NY
Richard Currier, New York, NY
Ralph Dames, Kearny, NJ
Joan Daniel, New York, NY
Michael Davis, Bronx, NY
Joan Deignan, Bronx, NY
Nick Del Re, Brooklyn, NY
Donna Dempsey, New York, NY
Patricia Dolan, Yonkers, NY
Tatiana Dunne, Brooklyn, NY
Ray Eginton, Springfield Gardens, NY
Philip Elenko, New York, NY
Duane Farabaugh, Forest Hills, NY
Sharon Fitzpatrick, New York, NY
Robert & Estée Fraser, Dupont, WA
Joseph Garriti, New York, NY
Sam Gelman, Woodside, NY
Olga González, New York, NY
Vivien Gornitz, New York, NY
Fran Greder, Belleville, NJ
Richard Greene, Bronx, NY
Nicholas Groshen, Forest Hills, NY
Raymond Hakimi, Great Neck, NY
Dr. Daniel Hall, Columbus, OH
Dr. George Harlow, New York, NY
Parvin Hartramph, New York, NY
Richard Hauck, Franklin, NJ
Jeffrey Hayward, Staten Island, NY
Tema Hecht, New York, NY
Will Heierman, Stafford, TX
Howard Heitner, Tuckahoe, NY
Erica Hirsch, Ocean Grove, NJ
Sidney Horenstein, New York, NY
Irving Horowitz, Floral Park, NY
Gail Jaffe, New York, NY
Diana Jarrett, University Park, FL
Rudolph B. Jones, Fayetteville, NC
Arlene Joseph, New Milford, NJ
Tracy Jukes, Wales, UK
Robert Karlovits, Staten Island, NY
Jacob Kaufman, New York, NY
James & Susan Kelly, Halcottsville, NY
Michael & Robin Kessler, E. Stroudsburg, PA
Jennifer Kim, New York, NY
Victor & Margaret Krasan, Jamaica, NY
Saul Krotki, Seattle, WA
Mark Kucera, Yonkers, NY
Delores Lawton, Brooklyn, NY
Delphine Leblanc, Hoboken, NJ
James Lee, Bronxville, NY
Steven Lester, Bronx, NY
Gail Brett Levine, Rego Park, NY
The Litvin Family, Englewood, NJ
Eduardo Lopez, New York, NY
Richard & Marion Lopus, Lords Valley, PA
Immacula Louisime, Jamaica, NY
Donna M. Luisi, Middle Village, NY
Robert J. Martinchek, Newington, CT
Sydney Mazur, New York, NY
Antoinette McLain, New York, NY
Dr. Charles Merguerian, Stone Ridge, NY
William Meyer, West rupert, VT
Stephen Milne, New York, NY
William Mirabello, Staten Island, NY
Miriam Mopper, Forest Hills, NY
Robbin C. Moran, Bronx, NY
Ashley Moy, New York, NY
Ethel Murray, New York, NY
Diane L. Nadler, New York, NY
Craig Nass, Forest Hills, NY
Cheryl Neary, Patchogue, NY
Jamie Newman, Brooklyn, NY
Pamela Nicholson, Brooklyn, NY
Nik Nikiforou, Astoria, NY
Tony Nikischer, Keswick, VA
Keith & Barbara Noyes, Blauvelt, NY
Thomas W. Nugent, Woodside, NY
Tim O’Meara, Reston, VA
Christopher O’Neill, Brooklyn, NY
William O’Neill, Brooklyn, NY
Kristall O’Neill-Richardson, New York, NY
Corinne Orr, New York, NY
Peter Palese, Leonia, NJ
James Peach, Brooklyn, NY
Seymour Perlowitz, Brooklyn, NY
Alfredo Petrov, Desert Hot Springs, CA
Martin & Lillie Pope, Brooklyn, NY
Mitchell Portnoy, New York, NY
Elayne Prince, Westport, CT
Eric Rampello, Levittown, NY
Joaquin Ramsey, New York, NY
George Rappaport, Staten Island, NY
Daniel J. Record, Newington, CT
James Regnante, Forest Hills, NY
Carolyn C. Reynard, Poughkeepsie, NY
Vesta Sue Rhodes, New York, NY
Karen Rice, Rio Rancho, NM
Susan Ritter, New York, NY
Dominic Rocchio, Bronx, NY
Deborah Steen Ross, Elmsford, NY
Richard & Judith B. Rossi, Brooklyn, NY
Olga Rubio, Chester, NY
Susan Jane Rudich, New York, NY
Oliver Sacks, M.D., New York, NY
Jesus U. & Meyci Sanchez, Elizabeth, NJ
John F. Sanfaçon, Morristown, NJ
Victor Sapienza, Staten Island, NY
Naomi Sarna, New York, NY
Joe Sarneski, Fairfield, CT
Roland Scal, New York, NY
Nathan A. Schachtman, New York, NY
Peter C. Schneirla, New York, NY
Anna Schumate, New York, NY
Jack Segall, Cedarhurst, NY
Charles & Ruth Severson, Gwynedd, PA
William Shelton, Tucson, AZ
Michael Silver, Los Angeles, CA
Candie Smith, Staten Island, NY
Charles Snider, New York, NY
Alma Barkey Sohmer, New York, NY
Dimitrios Spanos, Woodside, NY
Paul & Jeannine Speranza, N. Bellmore, NY
Atida Stein, New York, NY
Robin Sternberg, New York, NY
Steven B. Stieglitz, New York, NY
Linda Ultee, New York, NY
Ann Vitiello, Brooklyn, NY
Sam M. Waldman, Brooklyn, NY
Lenore Weber, New York, NY
Jeffrey P. Wiegand, New Rochelle, NY
Susana Wilches, New York, NY
Robin Wildes, New York, NY
Kerry Yuen, New York, NY
Leonid Zakinov, Forest Hills, NY
Vanessa Zannis, New York, NY
Theodore Zirnite, New York, NY
Anne Marie Zumer, Wantagh, NY
May 2015
15
2015-16 Club Calendar
Date
Event
Location
May 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Renée Newman – “Exotic Gems
and the Jewelry Business Today”
June 10
Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan
Mezzanine C
July ?
TBD
Details to Follow
Open House
August ?
Details to Follow
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Gold in Alaska”
October 7
Annual Gala Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: John Sanfaçon – “Synthetic
Minerals”
January 2016
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Details to Follow
Date
Event
Location
April 23-26
Radisson Hotel Rochester Airport,
Rochester, NY
Lectures, Exhibits, Dealers, Presentations,
Auctions, Banquet, etc.
April 25-26
Mineral Show
(913) 209-7212
May 16-17
Celinka Gem & Mineral Show
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel,
Patchogue, Long Island, NY
17+ dealers;
Info: Elaine Casani (631) 567-3342
July 18-19
Herkimer Gem Show 2015
United Methodist Church,
Herkimer, NY
New Show! Info: (315) 717-4664 or
[email protected]
July 25-26
LIMAGS Mineral Show
Cutchogue East Elementary School,
Cutchogue, NY
New Location!
August 7-9
East Coast Gem, Mineral &
Fossil Show
West Springfield, Massachusetts
Immense show with 200 dealers, wholesale
section, lectures, train/bus access from NYC
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 14-15
July 27- Aug 1, 2016
Albany, Oregon
Details to Follow
October 21-23
Rochester, New York
For more extensive national and regional show information check online:
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
e-mail: [email protected] .. . . . . . . . . .
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Next Meeting – Wednesday, May 13, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: Renée Newman, Author — “Exotic Gems Today”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 6
June 10th Meeting:
Annual Benefit Auction!
Additional Contributions Received
Below is a partial list of additional auction
contributions from members received since
the Mineral Show. Thanks to everyone!
Annual Benefit Auction to
Occur on June 10, 2015
By Mitch Portnoy
on't miss this year’s auction! All
members (and their friends and
guests) eagerly anticipate this event
each year and for good
reason. There is always
a wid e va r i e t y,
impressive quality and
great prices for all sorts
of items than can
enhance
their
collections.
You have seen
some of the donated
items listed in the
bulletin during the past
few months; more are included here (left).
And even more contributions will likely
come in on the evening of the auction! For
newer members, you can look forward to
adding some great items to your collection.
For more established members, you know
how exciting this auction can be. For
everyone, expect terrific value!
The auction is the primary fund
raiser for the club. The money goes to
underwrite the ever-increasing costs of the
paper monthly newsletter production and
mailing, meeting speaker and room rental
fees, banquet subsidy, administrative costs,
etc. (The yearly dues simply do not cover
all club expenses!) We rely on your
generosity to make this a successful event.
Please plan to attend and bid! And bring a
friend or make a donation if you have not
already done so.
The auction will be held from 6:15 to
9:00 p.m. in Mezzanine C at the Holiday
Inn Midtown Manhattan. You may preview
lots from about 5:00 until 6:15 when the
activity begins. Make sure you arrive in
time to view all the lots. The auction
proceedings cannot be interrupted to
allow more “personal viewing.” After
some brief club business we will start the
auction. Reminder: No personal selling is
allowed at this meeting!
A 2015 list of lots is on pages 8-9 for
your benefit and on which to take notes.
Please bring these pages with you to the
auction since there will not be many extra
D
From Susan Rudich
Leather Jewelry Box
Puka Bead Necklace
Blue Topaz in Silver Ring
Onyx, Prasiolite & etc. Bead Necklace
Multicolor “Heart Change” Necklace
Glass Rhino Figurine
Onyx Elongated Bowl
Jewelry Design Book
From Vivien Gornitz
Herkimer Diamond
Amber Specimen
From Corinne Orr
Tiger Eye Earrings
From Mark Kucera
Weardale Fluorite Specimen
From Arlene Joseph (of Somethings)
Splendid Selection of Jewelry!
A number of other members handed me
things and I admit I forgot who gave me
what but we thank you just as sincerely!
Note: If you cannot attend the auction but
would like to bid on any of the items listed
in the bulletin, please let us know. We can
act as your agent at the auction. —
Executive Team
We regret the passing of our friend,
scholar, lawyer, artist and NYMC member
Park McGinty in April.
June 2015
copies available. This listing contains only
those items that were received in time to
print; there will be even more (surprise!)
lots sold during the auction itself. Please
read the introduction on
the top of the page for
additional auction
guidelines and
suggestions.
In addition, for the
first time, an illustrated
catalog of all the lots
was created in
advance. A PDF
version of this catalog
was emailed out to all
members for whom we
have an active email address. The pages and
their images of this file will be projected
during the auction to aid you in seeing what
the lot actually looks like.
We will continue to offer the lots in the
same order as they are listed in the
catalog/listing. Most people have reacted
favorably to this procedure so we decided to
continue it. In addition, we have again
“grouped” the lots into logical categories.
You can see in the catalog/listing that
there is a varied roster of lots to bid on.
However, we can never have too many
auction items. Don't be shy! Donations are
still happily accepted. Your duplicate
mineral, gem, book, piece of jewelry can be
a treasure for someone else.
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Ice!. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Garnet Banquet Preview.. . . . . . . . . . 6
Herkimer Book Review. . . . . . . . . . . 7
BEAC Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Benefit Auction Listing. . . . . . . . 8-9
The 100: Rock-Forming Minerals. . 10
Topics in Gemology: Wine!. . . . . . . 11
Rockhounds We Love. . . . . . . . . . . 12
LHC Resumes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Earth’s New Layer?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Mars Nitrogen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2
By Mitch Portnoy
Springfield Show Bus?
After several weeks of analysis, we have
decided NOT to sponsor a bus for club
members and friends to this huge mineral
show in August. The numbers simply do
not work. In the next bulletin we will
provide travel alternatives from NYC to
Springfield.
Bulletin Article Contest Winners
Congratulations are in order to Diana
Jarrett, Branko Deljanin and Vivien
Gornitz, each of whose article, in the
advanced category in the EFMLS 2015
contest, was in the top 5! I think 3/5 for
one club at this level is astounding!
Benefit Auction Update
With this year’s Benefit Auction we will
go even deeper into the 21st Century’s
digital age! We have sent to everyone with
an email address on file a PDF version of
an illustrated benefit auction catalog.
We will also project this file during the
auction itself to better identify to everyone
there what is being offered. At the same
time, Diane Beckman, our treasurer, will
use the auction management software that
we used for the first time last year.
Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version
Electronic Storage
Club Saves LOTS of Money
Go Green!
Requires
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional
May 13, 2015
Attendance: 36
Announcements:
After the regular monthly raffle, a brief
tribute to Park McGinty was made by
Mitch.
After the usual historical meeting day
notices, the #4 Minerals & Light game,
about luster, was played.
The usual items available (both free
and for pay) at the meeting were listed.
Upcoming club events were previewed
through December 2015.
Banquet attendees will receive a 2016
Club Calendar as a gift.
The November NYC Mineral Show
will have two lectures, one an
introduction to mineral colleting (H.
Heitner) and another about Upper
Manhattan mineral collecting (T.
Zirnite).
Special Lecture: Renée Newman —
“Exotic Gems Today”
Imagine pairing bright red gem-quality
rhodochrosite or neon aqua blue apatite
with diamonds and high karat gold.
Unthinkable a mere generation ago, but just
one of the unusual, non-traditional gemmy
combinations used by top designers today.
Renée Newman, gemologist and author of
many popular books on the subject
described, in a well-illustrated presentation,
how “exotic” or unconventional gems were
increasingly being incorporated into fine
jewelry and eagerly sought by celebrities
and well-heeled people.
Ranging from fairly common minerals,
such as fluorite, kyanite, apatite, rhodonite,
chryosocolla, feldspar (sunstone,
moonstone), or prehnite to rarities such as
emerald-green chrome diopside, benitoite,
haüyne, bixbite (red beryl), Paraiba (Cubearing) tourmaline, or phosphophyllite, the
key characteristics defining an exotic
gemstone include transparency, clarity, and
color. A low Mohs hardness need not be a
deterrent with careful usage and in
protective settings. Renée pointed out how
amber (H 2-2.5) and pearls (H 2.5-4.5) have
been used in jewelry for centuries, despite
softness, sensitivity to acids and chemicals,
and a tendency to craze, in the case of
amber.
The “Fish Tank Treasure” rip-off
dramatically demonstrates the importance
of transparency and clarity of colored
gemstones for true value. Three large
“gems” were discovered while cleaning out
a fish tank—a sapphire and two emeralds.
June 2015
Sold at auction, the larger emerald went for
$105,000, the smaller one for $22,000, and
the sapphire for nearly $38,000. Cloudy,
opaque, and full of fractures, these
“treasures” could have been acquired at any
gem show for around $10 per carat. Some
clever piece of promotion! Lesson: don’t be
fooled by the fancy name of the stone; look
for transparency, freedom from visible cracks
or flaws, and a decent color.
Tanzanite, a truly exotic gemstone, from
a far-away land and relatively rare (only one
known mining locality—near Arusha,
Tanzania), is the deep-blue to purple gemmy
variety of the mineral zoisite. But tanzanite
occurs in other colors as well, including
green, yellow, and pink. A heated debate
swirls around the green variety—should it be
called “green tanzanite” or the more
accurate, but less appealing “green zoisite”?
At any rate, green and blue hour-glass colorzoned crystals are among the most interesting
specimens of tanzanite. Gemstones cut to
exhibit the green and blue color zoning or cut
at an angle to expose contrasting pleochroic
colors are truly unique.
Some high quality exotic gems rival
diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald in
price. Rare gems selling for over $5,000 per
carat include Russian demantoid, California
benitoite, haüyne from the Eiffel Mts.,
Germany, and hiddenite from North
Carolina, among others. But many more
unusual, yet affordable gemstones can be
found at most gem and mineral shows.
Happy hunting!
Members in the News

Branko Deljanin presented the lecture
Provenance of Pink Diamonds in
Sydney, Australia on April 19, 2015.
Dr. Oliver Sacks had an article about
actor Spalding Gray’s brain injury (“The
Catastrophe”) in the April 27, 2015
issue of The New Yorker.
Marine Boy, the cartoon series Corinne
Orr starred in, has just been re-released
by Warner Bros. and Speed Racer –
where she played both Trixie and Spritle
– is now on Hulu, all 58 episodes.
Alla Priceman – Larchmont, NY
June 2015
3
Ice: The Mineral that Shapes the Earth
Ice—The Mineral
Ice is a mineral—the solid, crystalline form of water. The
world of ice occupies a vast realm—the cryosphere—that extends
from the frigid poles to ice-laden polar seas, lofty mountain peaks,
and frozen tundra. Its realm encompasses snow, lake and river ice,
floating ice (sea ice, icebergs, ice shelves), land ice (ice sheets, ice
caps, and glaciers), and permafrost (frozen soil). Antarctica houses
the vastest store of ice by far–a vast continental ice sheet
comprising 87 per cent of the total by volume, followed by
Greenland (10 percent), and ice shelves (2.3 percent), with smaller
volumes in sea ice, permafrost, and mountain glaciers. However,
permafrost and sea ice cover the largest area, followed by the
Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, and ice shelves.
Snowflakes form when water vapor condenses and solidifies
onto nuclei of mineral dust (kaolinite, feldspar, quartz, or volcanic
ash), organic matter, soot, even artificial particles (dry ice, silver
iodide) at temperatures below 0ºC (32ºF).
and degrees of water vapor saturation. Constantly in motion, the
crystals are exposed to similar conditions in all directions from
moment to moment. This enables them to maintain the hexagonal
symmetry dictated by their atomic structure. However, the rapidly
changing environmental conditions cause numerous alternations in
crystal growth that ultimately generates complex and diverse
shapes. Thus, no two snowflakes are exactly alike.
Figure 2. Crystal structure of ordinary ice.
[Red (darker) balls are oxygen atoms; blue (lighter) are hydrogen atoms].
Figure 1. Snowflake showing 6-fold symmetry.
(Source: Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech, 1999.
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/primer/primer.htm).
The hexagonal shape of a snowflake reveals the internal
arrangement of atoms within the ice crystal. In ice, oxygen and
hydrogen atoms are linked to adjacent H2O molecules, forming
tetrahedral bonds at 109.5º angles. The tetrahedra are stacked into
a three dimensional lattice with overall hexagonal symmetry (as in
the snowflake)1. (Ice, however, exists in at least 15 separate
polymorphs with different crystal structures, over a broad range of
low temperatures and high pressures). Because hydrogen bonds
that connect adjacent H2O molecules create an open structure, ice,
unlike most solids, is less dense (0.917 g/cm3 at 0ºC) than its liquid
phase—water (0.9998 g/cm3). Hence, ice floats on water.
The growth of a snowflake is extraordinarily sensitive to
minor variations in atmospheric temperature and water vapor
concentration. This creates a wide variety of crystal shapes that
range from flat hexagonal plates, hexagonal prisms, hollow prisms,
to six-sided dendritic plates, and endless combinations of these.
More rapid growth along crystal edges and side branches under
supersaturated conditions produces hollow, stepped crystals
(hoppers) or dendritic branches. The growing snowflakes, buffeted
by gusts of wind, encounter random fluctuations in temperature
The Birth of a Glacier
Randomly falling snowflakes mark the birth of a glacier.
Individual snow crystals eventually grow large and heavy enough
to fall. Several crystal can aggregate into pellets or partially melt,
as sleet. Fresh snow is very porous. As more snow accumulates
over time, the intricately branched shapes of snowflakes gradually
grow rounder and larger; older snow compresses and recrystallizes.
Snow that survives the summer is called firn—the first step in
snow’s transition to ice. A growing succession of many years’
loosely-packed snowfalls gradually transforms firn into ice. After
multiple freeze-thaw cycles, continued compaction and
recrystallization, firn reaches the density of pure ice, completing
its transformation to ice.
Originally randomly-oriented, ice crystals adopt an
increasingly non-random arrangement, or crystal fabric under the
increasing weight of overlying ice at depth inside a glacier. The
glide planes in ice crystals begin to align in the direction of flow,
roughly parallel to the glacier’s bed2. Ice that has developed this
preferred orientation can slide many times faster than randomly
oriented crystals. The arrangement of crystals therefore underpins
the ability of ice to flow in glaciers and ice sheets3.
Ice is not only a mineral, but also a rock. Glaciers and ice
sheets are massive aggregates of millions and millions of
individual crystals. Ice is also a metamorphic rock–one that has
recrystallized and become deformed under the force of gravity.
Contorted layers and stripes of rocky debris trapped in ice reveal
the stresses to which the glacier ice has been subjected during its
downward journey–not unlike the wavy and twisted bands and
folds seen in schist outcrops in Central Park—stark remnants of
several episodes of mountain building, uplift, and subsequent
erosion hundreds of millions of years ago.
4
June 2015
flowing rivers. Tributary glaciers remain stranded as hanging
glaciers above the main glacier, which eroded a much deeper
valley when the ice was more extensive. These glacial sculptures
create the breathtaking scenery of the Alps, the northern Rockies,
the Himalayas and other mountain chains. Meltwater emerging
from a glacier’s snout collects in streams or in small milky
greenish-blue glacial lakes, colored by the high number of finely
suspended ice-pulverized particles, or “rock flour”.
Figure 3. Folded layers in glacier ice—clear signs of deformation.
Crusoe Glacier,Alex Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/alex_heiberg/crusoe_glacier/crusoe_fro
nt_west/index-en.html?id=2/.
Glaciers slowly flow downslope under the pull of gravity.
Glaciers and ice caps cover 0.73 million square kilometers of land
worldwide, occupying a volume of 0.15 million cubic kilometers.
Over three quarters of glaciers (by area) lie in the Arctic, Alaska,
and the Himalayas. They blanket mountain tops on all continents,
including the high peaks of the tropics. Small high altitude glaciers
still whiten tropical peaks, such as on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
However, these are among the world’s most endangered glaciers,
as the planet warms.
Glaciers are one of nature’s most efficient landscape architects,
constantly reshaping their environments through the processes
of erosion, entrainment, transportation, and deposition.
R. D. Karpilo, Jr. (2009)
Ice as a Land Sculptor
Ice is a powerful land sculptor, creating rugged Alpine
mountain scenery and excavating valleys and fjord basins.
Mountain glaciers confined to narrow valleys flow downhill like
rivers of ice. As a thick mass of ice slowly descends down the
mountainside into the valley and beyond, it abrades exposed rocks,
smoothing and rounding their surfaces, plucks boulders and
transports them, and quarries shattered rock fragments from valley
walls. Laden with broken rocks, pebbles, soil, and meltwater, the
relentlessly advancing ice scours the underlying surface, scraping
and wearing down bedrock and loose sediment. It leaves evidence
of its passage in distinctively-shaped landforms, rock outcrops, and
debris that accumulates in characteristic deposits. Continual
grinding by an advancing glacier reduces entrained rocks to fine
flour that, like jewelers’ rouge4, polishes bare surfaces to a high
luster, also producing scars, such as scratches, grooves, and linear
striations parallel to its flow direction. Scraped by the ice sheets of
the last Ice Age, these scratch marks, or striations are still visible
on smoothed rock outcrops of Central Park and other city parks.
Perched high on mountainsides, the heads of most glacial
valleys occupy cirques, or bowl-shaped hollows. Sharp ridges, or
arêtes, separate cirques between mountain slopes. Jagged
pyramidal peaks, such as the Matterhorn in Switzerland, form
where several cirques intersect. A glacier bulldozing its way
downhill carves U-shaped valleys, in distinct contrast to the
characteristic steep-sloped V-shaped mountain valleys etched by
Figure 4. Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland, largest glacier in the Alps.
Dark wavy band in the middle are medial moraines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/Aletsch_Glacier#/media/File:Aletschgletscher_mit_
Pinus_cembra2.pdf.
Glacier ice often glows a deep aqua blue because ice
preferentially absorbs longer wavelengths (i.e., yellow and red),
scattering light mainly in the blue. The aquamarine glow shows up
best in densely packed, well-crystallized ice with few included air
bubbles, such as found in freshly exposed crevasses or calved
icebergs.
As recently as 20,000 years ago, a massive continental-scale
ice sheet covered much of Canada and the northern United States.
As the ice sheet retreated, it left behind tell-tale signs of its former
presence. Its signature may still be seen in New York City parks.
Ice has streamlined exposed rocky outcrops into roche moutonnées
(Fr., literally “sheep-like rock”) that are smooth on the side facing
the oncoming glacier, but shattered and jagged on the lee flank.
Figure 5. Roche moutonnée in Central Park, Manhattan. Author’s photo.
Ice overriding rock or sediments carved drumlins–streamlined
hills, steeper and wider on the up-glacier side and gentler, more
June 2015
tapered on the lee side. Drumlins may occur alone or in swarms
containing hundreds or thousands of mounds. The now-vanished
ice sheets have also gouged out numerous lakes, such as the Great
Lakes, or the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.
However, the work of glaciers does not end with erosion.
Glaciers and ice sheets transport and deposit enormous loads
ranging from huge boulders, gravel, and silt to fine-grained clay
hundreds of kilometers from their source areas. They pile mounds
of unsorted debris along valley walls (lateral moraines) and at
their final advance (terminal moraine). The lateral moraines of two
converging glaciers create a medial moraine where they join.
Recessional moraines mark successive stages in a glacier’s retreat.
Ice leaves various types of deposits (collectively known as
glacial drift) in its wake. Foreign rocks and boulders, or glacial
erratics, dumped far from their sources populate glaciated terrains.
These exotic boulders—granite, metamorphic and sedimentary
rocks from upstate New York, diabase from the Palisades across
the Hudson River—lie scattered across New York City parkscapes.
Sands and gravels deposited in channels or tunnels beneath
stagnant or retreating ice form long, sinuous ridges, or eskers,
when the ice melts. Streams or in ponds on the surface of a
stagnant glacier fill hollows or depressions with layered sand.
Once the ice melts, small mounds, knobs, or hummocks, called
kames remain. Kettles form in depressions left by melting ice
blocks. Outwash plains develop from sediments washed out by
streams emerging at the edge of a retreating ice sheet. Much of
Long Island, New York consists of an outwash plain south of the
terminal moraine which roughly divides the island in half along its
length from west to east. In New York City, the terminal moraine,
which forms a ridge, stretches across parts of Queens, Brooklyn
and into Staten Island.
5
Andes, New Zealand, to name a few. Mountain glaciers and ice
caps are quickly wasting away, losing enough ice between 1993
and 2010 to raise sea level by 0.8 mm/yr (0.031 in/yr), if spread
out evenly across the oceans. The two large ice sheets (Greenland
and Antarctica) are adding another 0.6 mm/yr (0.02 in) to the
oceans. These still fairly small ice losses are poised to increase
substantially in the future, if global warming continues unabated.
Elsewhere, floating sea ice over the Arctic Ocean has declined
since 1979. Sea ice reached its lowest late summer minimum
extent in September, 2012 and lowest winter maximum extent in
late February, 2015. Permafrost, or permanent frozen soil, is
thawing, leaving myriad thaw lakes and “drunken” trees tilting at
odd angles, as the ground beneath turns to mush.
Not to worry—just yet. Plenty of snow and ice still blanket
mountain peaks in winter, although much less so than formerly in
many places. The Greenland and Antarctic Ice sheets are still
intact—for now. And while Anchorage, Alaska basked in record
warmth this winter, the northeast U.S. experienced one of the
coldest and snowiest seasons on record. Enough snow for children
to take time off from school to build snowmen, skiers and skaters
to enjoy winter sports, and for anyone to marvel at the beauty of
freshly fallen snowflakes and ice crystals sparkling like gems in
the sunlight.
Further Reading
Balog, J., Williams, T.T. (foreward), 2012. Ice: Portraits of
Vanishing Glaciers. Rizzoli International Publications.
IPCC (2013). Summary for Policymakers. Climatic Change: The
Physical Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. Alexander, L., Allen, S., Bindoff, L., Church, J., and
others, eds. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK and
New York, NY, USA. http://www.ipcc.ch/ (see section on
cryosphere).
Libbrecht, K., 2006. Ken Libbrecht’s Field Guide to Snowflakes.
Libbrecht, K., 2003. The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty.
Post, A. and Lachappelle, E.R., 2000. Glacier Ice. Toronto: U. of
Toronto Press, with International Glaciological Society,
Cambridge England.
Endnotes
(1) The tetrahedral arrangement of oxygen and hydrogen atoms in
ice resembles that of silicon and oxygen in quartz, and in silicate
minerals. O and H atoms in H2O molecules (connected by black
lines) are linked to adjacent water molecules by H-bonds (white
lines) (Fig. 2). The latter are weaker than the tight covalent bonds
between atoms in a water molecule.
Figure 6. Glacial Erratic in Central Park, Manhattan. Author’s photo.
We build statues of snow, and weep to see them melt.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Vanishing Ice
The world of ice is rapidly changing as the planet heats up.
Almost half of the area once occupied by Alpine glaciers in 1850
had disappeared by 2000. The European Alps are not alone.
Similar rollbacks have affected many widely separated glaciers
across the globe: in southern Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, the
(2) In the hexagonal system, the c-axis (and the optical axis)
displays 6-fold symmetry. The main glide (basal) plane in ice (on
which the crystals preferentially slide) is perpendicular to the caxis.
(3) A thin layer of water at the base of the glacier also acts to
lubricates it and facilitate flow.
(4) Jewelers’ rouge used to polish metals is finely powdered
hematite, or iron oxide, Fe2O3. Its hardness (5-6 on the Mohs scale,
where graphite =1 and diamond=10) is somewhat less than most
typical rock-forming minerals (Mohs hardness ~6-7).
6
October Banquet Preview
Most people think that garnet is a red gemstone. However, garnet occurs in
a wide variety of colors. Clockwise from the top left: red almandine
(Madagascar), green tsavorite (Tanzania), yellow mali (Mali), orange
spessartite (Mozambique), pink malaya (Tanzania), green merelani mint
(Tanzania), red pyrope (Ivory Coast), green demantoid (Namibia), purple
rhodolite (Mozambique), and orange hessonite (Sri Lanka). Seven out of
eight of the garnets above are from Africa, the relatively new source of
spectacular garnets.
June 2015
June 2015
Collector’s Guide to Herkimer Diamonds
By Michael R. Walter
Reviewed by Johan Maertens
Written by Michael R. Walter from Geologic Desires, a
mineral dealership established in 1994. This 11 x 8½ inch
softbound book has 96 pages, 210 color photos, 7 black and white
pictures, and tables and figures, including crystal sketches of
quartz crystals and maps
showing several of the
localities where Herkimer
Diamonds have been
collected.
Another valued book by
Michael Walter on regional
collecting in New York is
Field Collecting Minerals in
the Empire State: Stories of
Modern Day North Country
Miners, published in 2010.
This a practical field
co llecting guide for
Herkimer Diamonds, special
formed quartz crystals,
collectable from several
places in upstate New York
State, USA. The guide includes topics of interest to anyone curious
about this unique form of quartz. The text is very readable from
beginner to advanced hobby mineral collector. It avoids technical
information for those who want to understand quartz in greater
depth. Full color photos are spread throughout the book, along with
first hand experiences collecting many of the specimens featured.
Field photographs illustrate the informative text and enhance
the reader’s experience. The text includes scientific information
regarding Herkimer Diamonds’ geological and mineralogical
history, where they can be collected, and descriptions of important
historic locations. This book delves in collecting and locations in
a way that scientific texts cannot do. The author details specific
methods used to effectively field collect Herkimer quartz crystals,
with photos of mining methods and a discussion of collecting
approaches. Current collecting mines are specified and the gear
collectors need is detailed. Specimen preparation, mineral
collections, and associated minerals are recounted.
7
Beyond being a great book that is well worth the money, this
is an essential guide for every collector of the widely known and
desired quartz variety. The collecting techniques extend to other
localities, adding to its value. The author writes from the heart and
from 35 years of experience of collecting minerals in the area.
The book opens with a short biographical sketch of Mr.
Walter and closes with a list of references, and glossary. The book
is of good technical quality in terms of printing, illustration color,
crispness and paper. The pictorial soft cover of the book that I read
is of either poor print quality or out of focus. Mr. Walter can
enhance the reader’s experience with internet supplements such as
pictures and collecting movies.
Published by Schiffer Publishing Company, Atglen, PA, December
2014for $19.99. ISBN13: 9780764347108
A copy of this book (along with an actual Herkimer)
will be offered at this year’s benefit auction!
2015 EFMLS Bulletin Article Contest Results
The following 2014 works were submitted to the EFMLS for judging in
the 2015 BEAC. Here are the results, which were announced at the 65th
Annual EFMLS Convention (March 28-29, 2015 in Hickory NC).
Category: Advanced Articles
Uncovering Fabergé by Diana Jarrett
Argyle Mine Colored Diamonds by B. Deljanin
Diamonds: A Long Journey from the Deep by V. Gornitz
Category: Regular Articles
What Went Down in Tucson 2014 by Diana Jarrett
Famous Rubies That Aren’t by Mitch Portnoy
Braggite by Mitch Portnoy
Trophy!
2nd Place
5th Place
5th Place
10th Place
Certificate
Category: Poetry
True Story by Otis Kidwell Burger
4th Place
Category: Written Features
A Dazzling Display (Bulgari Exhibit) by Diana Jarrett
A Cursed Jade Specimen by Mitch Portnoy
Dioptase, Hemimorphite & Wulfenite by Bill Shelton
3rd Place
4th Place
8th Place
Category: Special Publications
Stamp Album of the New York Mineralogical Club by Mitch Portnoy
Introduction to Mineral Crystallography by Vivien Gornitz
Both of these publications were in the “top 3” and were transferred to the
AFMS for national judging. (Results announced in late October.)
8
June 2015
2015 New York Mineralogical Club Benefit Auction Catalog
Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, New York City
Auction Procedures & Guidelines
This catalog contains short descriptions of the items being offered. Fuller descriptions are on the labels included with the items themselves. In addition, more items will be donated after
this catalog is printed, including on the evening of the auction itself. Please allow yourself enough time to see all the lots. The auction proceedings will not be interrupted to allow additional
“personal” viewing.
Each bidder will be assigned a number. This allows the club to keep track of the transactions, winning bids and successful bidders. Arrive early to sign up for one. The order of the items
offered will be determined by the auctioneer although the auction will proceed primarily in the numerical lot order of this listing.
Each lot will be offered with either a minimum bid or a starting bid determined by the auctioneer. Minimum bids may be determined by the auctioneer. Bids will be: in $1.00 increments
to $10.00; in $2.00 increments to $20.00; in $5.00 increments thereafter. Some lots have a reserved price.
Each lot will be distributed to the successful bidder immediately. Only after the auction is finished should the successful bidder reconcile with the club volunteers. (They are recording
bids during the auction.) Cash or personal check only. No credit allowed. There are no consignment lots. All monies go to the club to support lectures, publications, prizes, the banquet, meeting
room expenses, etc.
Items of unusual quality, size or rarity are in bold. Have fun!
Remember to Bring: Checkbook/Cash ! Auction Catalog ! Pen / Pencil ! Packing Materials ! Tote Bag(s)
If you have any specific questions about any of the lots below, please contact Mitch.
Section 1: Desirable Collector Minerals
1.
Amethyst (Quartz).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brazil
2.
Orange Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Orange River, South Africa
3.
Dolomite & Mimetite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
4.
Schulenburgite (Rare!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Germany
5.
Mimetite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
6.
Dolomite on Mottramite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
7.
Smithsonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
8.
Calcite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
9.
Gemmy Cerussite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
10. Cerussite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
11. Heulandite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Poona, India
12. Dolomite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
13. Calcite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
14. Calcite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joplin, Missouri
22. Carnelian and Agate Bead Necklace
23. Blue Beaded Bracelet
24. Bendable Pearl & Wire Bracelet
25. Pearl & Red Serpentine Necklace
26. Crystal & Silver Chain Necklace
27. Heavy Multibead Necklace
28. Pendant & Silver Chain
29. Mother-of-Pearl Pendant
30. Mother-of-Pearl Earrings
31. Peridot in Silver Ring
32. Lapis and Silver Earrings
33. Opal Earrings
34. Multi-Gemstone Earrings
35. Interchangeable Glass Heart Necklace
Section 3: Gemstones, Cabs, Faceted Stones
15. Prehnite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paterson, New Jersey
36. (2) Faceted Pink/Orange Sapphires.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brazil
16. Descloizite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nevada
37. (3) Faceted Multicolor Sapphires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brazil
17. Red Chalcedony & Apophyllite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
38. Polished Rhodonite (!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
18. (1) Quartz & (1) Amethyst Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
39. Ruby (!) in Feldspar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Section 2: Jewelry
19. Gemstone Bead Necklace
20. Amethyst Bead Necklace
21. Botswana Agate Necklace
40. (2) Tumbled Charoites (!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
41. Large Pink Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
42. Medium Pink Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
43. Iridescent Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
44. Cat’s Eye Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
June 2015
Section 4: Lapidary Arts & Carvings
45. Colorful Onyx Dish.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
46. Carved Turtle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
47. “Picture” Dendrites in Limestone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
48. “Picture” Dendrites in Limestone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
49. Carved & Polished Fluorite Obelisk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
50. Sliced Polished Amethyst Stalactite. . . . . . . . . . . . Uruguay
51. Sliced Polished Amethyst Stalactite. . . . . . . . . . . . Uruguay
52. Pyramids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
9
72. Mounted Thunderegg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oregon
73. Volborthite & Chrysocolla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chile
74. Stilbite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
75. Muscovite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minas Gerais, Brazil
76. HUGE Feldspar/Aquamarine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pakistan
77. Duftite, Mottramite, Mimetite. . . . . . . . . . Tsumeb, Namibia
78. Quartz Cluster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhinebeck, New York
79. Shungite & Pyrite Cabochon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
80. Tourmaline and Sphene Thumbnails.. . . . . . . . . . . Pakistan
81. Ruby and Anapaite Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
Section 5: Books & Ephemera
82. Herkimer, Pyrite, Apatite Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
53. Herkimer Diamond Book & Specimens
Section 8: Miscellaneous
54. (4) Mineralogical Record Collector Cards
55. Rare and Beautiful Minerals by Hoffman
56. Minerals and Gems by John S. White
57. Minerals by George Robinson (signed)
58. Vintage Jewelry Design by Caroline Cox
83. Green Leather Jewelry Box
84. Glass Rhinoceros Figurine
85. 3D Laser Etched Crystal Paperweight
86. Full Sheet Mineral Stamps (10¢)
87. Full Sheet Mineral Stamps (29¢)
Section 6: Fossils, Meteorites, Science
59. Fossil Fish Plate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wyoming
88. Southwestern USA Fetish (Pipestone & Turquoise)
89. Southwestern USA Fetish (Tagua Nut & Turquoise)
60. Enchodus Tooth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
Section 9: Late Arrivals
61. Meteorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
62. Amber Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baltic
63. Copper ps. after Aragonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bolivia
64. Limonite ps. after Marcasite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Egypt
65. Trilobite Fossil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
66. Calcite Stalactite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mexico
67. Florescent Fluorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weardale, England
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
Section 7: Larger (& Smaller) Lots
97.
68. Celestite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Madagascar
98.
69. Labradorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Madagascar
99.
70. Serpentine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pakistan/Afghanistan
100.
71. Scolecite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
10
June 2015
The 100 is a monthly feature of interest to mineral collectors written by Bill Shelton, based upon his many years of experience
as a mineral collector, educator, author, appraiser, philanthropist and dealer. Comments as well as suggestions for new topics
are most welcome. Contact him at [email protected].
Some Rock-Formers
Using the terms olivine, scapolite and sphene (now titanite),
we find that they are all mineral groups. Further, titanite is still a
proper species name while the rest are not. Today, much olivine is
properly named forsterite or fayalite while scapolite is generally
marialite or meionite. Here, we will be less strict and use the older
terminology. Crystal form lends itself to the names of scapolite and
sphene. Titanite hints of composition and olivine suggests the
color green. In any event, they are all major rock-forming minerals
and sometimes we find nice specimens that end up gracing our
collections. Titanite is easily found in good crystals while olivine
is relatively rare as such. Scapolite is modestly available but good
crystals are not very common.
There are lots of localities: 787 just for forsterite, 817 for
scapolite and 3,820 for titanite. Hence, really good crystal
localities are both important to know about and few in number.
Most olivine is in massive or granular form; some scapolite is
massive while much titanite is in crystals albeit good or less so in
quality. One would be wise to consult Rock Forming Minerals by
Deer, Howie and Zusssman for a detailed account.
A modern label would indicate forsterite (not olivine or
peridot) as the species for a crystal from St. John’s Island which is
the most famous classic locality. More recent localities that
produce even larger, fine crystals include Sri Lanka, Myanmar
and, most recent, Pakistan. I have seen wonderful forsterites with
hairlike black inclusions of ludwigite that would be a great asset to
most any collection from Pakistan. Very well-known gemmy
nodules are seen from the San Carlos area in Arizona but I don’t
think any decent crystals occur there. Large, altered crystals occur
in the Kovdor (Russia) and are similar to older pieces from
Snarum, Norway.
Peridot, St John's Island (Zagbargad; Zabargad; Zebirget) Egypt
Peridot as a gem.
This is a major colored gem – it is found in a lot of places but
the best are from Burma, Egypt and Arizona. The largest stones are
about 300 carats or so; Arizona has occasional stones to 35 carats
but anything over 10 carats is extraordinary. Yellowish examples
may be called chrysolite. The richest green I have seen is in certain
Burmese stones. Close, but not as lovely to my eye, we find
greenish stones from Pakistan.
Scapolite, on the other hand, can be found not too far afield
from NYC. Bolton, Mass. and New York counties Lewis, Orange
and St. Lawrence have been documented as sources for scapolite.
At Franklin and Orange County, New Jersey you may find
scapolite crystals. In the vicinity of Mt. Adam and Eve, we
collected some modestly good crystals embedded in marble – also,
spinel and chondrodite. Classic and fine examples are noted from
Brazil, Tanzania, Burma and Madagascar. Some are sufficient to
provide excellent gemstones that can be a beautiful shade of
yellow; white and pink are also known. Yellowish stones up to 100
carats or so occur as do white examples to nearly 300 carats. Pink
stones to 70 carats are recorded; a few cats-eye stones occur – they
can be up to 50 carats or so.
Titanite (aka Sphene) from Arondu, Basha Valley, Baltistan, Pakistan
Titanite (formerly sphene) amongst this trio is most frequently
found in decent crystals. Not too long ago, chrome-green examples
appeared from Russia and were widely accepted and sought after
by collectors. When associated with pure white calcite or purplish
amesite, they can be spectacular. Classic examples are noted from
the Tilly Foster mine and Rossie, Gouvernor and Oxbow (all New
York). The Grenville marble in Canada (i.e., Eganville) produces
fine crystals. Franklin, New Jersey and adjacent Orange County,
New York also yield fine samples. Mexico, Switzerland and the
Urals (Russia) also have been productive for good specimens. I
find titanite to be a minor but interesting gemstone. Colors range
from colorless, red, yellow, green, blue, and brown to black – quite
a variety. While infrequently seen above 10 carats, a few notable
stones are documented. One stone, over 100 carats and a beautiful
green, is known from India. Brazil yielded at least one stone over
50 carats. Rare red stones occur up to about 5 carats and chrome
green examples are known up to about 3 carats. Pakistan has been
a source in the last 20 years or so for some good stones as has
Brazil and most recently Madagascar.
Fluorescence, mostly yellow/white or white, is known in
forsterite from New York and California; most forsterite does not
fluoresce. Scapolite is well-known to fluorescent collectors,
(especially as wernerite). It is found in New York, New Jersey
(Franklin), Canada and Brazil. Expect yellow to orange responses
to UV light. Titanite from Franklin, Maine and Brazil will likely
exhibit a yellowish fluorescence; there are numerous other sources
of course. As we find with most minerals. SW is more likely to
cause a bright reaction – here we note scapolite as one of the few
bright examples responsive to LW fluorescence.
June 2015
11
Topics in Gemology
Topics in Gemology is a monthly column written by Diana Jarrett, GG, RMV, based on gemological questions posed to her
over the years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at dianajarrett.com.
Something to Wine About
Every year, lifestyle experts in the fields of jewelry, fashion,
interior design and more anticipate the pronouncement of Pantone
Color Institute’s Color of the Year. Since 2000, this analyst has
been designating specific colors which express a sort of global
zeitgeist; colors that are resonating around the world and reflect
what people are looking for. But which came first, the prediction
or the trend? While the jury still debates those finer points, jewelry
manufacturers and retailers are particularly keen to convert this
annual forecast into an inventory that sells.
For 2015, the color to watch is Marsala – a deeply robust wine
hue that brings an appealing accompaniment to wearable art in both
fashion and accessories. Since manufacturers and retailers buy out
for the next season, it’s critical to know where the color trend
winds are blowing. No retailer wants to get caught with customers
looking for goods they cannot deliver.
director, Pantone Color Institute, “Marsala is a subtly seductive
shade, one that draws us in to its embracing warmth.”
Expert Viewpoint
Gem cutters, designers and retailers have actually been offering
a range of intense deep toned wine red colors for years. So they
have a cultivated sensibility on why Marsala resonates with their
customers. Experts believe some of the reasons the Marsala hued
stones have continued to garner fans over time is due to their
flattering versatility. Most skin tones are complemented by this
deep burgundy. According to award-winning custom gemstone
cutter Lisa Elser, “I’ve found that the rich, dark Marsala tones can
be underwhelming in the case, but for many clients it comes alive
on their skin. If I can get them to try it, they often fall in love.”
10.5ct Tanzanian rhodolite garnet; Courtesy Lisa Elser - Custom Cut Gems. Photo Karlyn Bennett.
Handcrafted pink tourmaline earrings with brilliant round diamonds in 18K rose gold.
Courtesy Omi Privé.
Interpret the Trends
As retailers, how do we interpret the Marsala hue that Pantone
praises? According to the institute, Marsala is “a naturally robust
and earthy wine red . . . enriching our minds, bodies and souls.”
That’s a great place to start since there’s a strong emotional
component to jewelry we sell. After all, jewelry was created to
connect the wearer to the piece, even the giver to the fortunate
recipient. We like to say that a piece of jewelry or even a gemstone
‘speaks’ to someone; creating a highly mesmeric attraction between
a jewelry item and the consumer.
Casting a broad glance around the natural world, we discover
countless instances where a version of the Marsala color creates a
potent draw for people. Besides the rich fortified wine bearing the
Marsala moniker, we see pomegranates, deep-toned berries, roses,
warm spices and so on. According to Leatrice Eiseman, executive
Elser’s prowess in cutting similar wine-red stones has landed
her in good company. In 2013, her 3rd Place winner in AGTA’s
Cutting Edge competition, a 14.24 carat deep red tourmaline
ended up in the Smithsonian National Gem and Mineral
Collection alongside such luminaries as the Hope Diamond.
Imaginative designers consider 2015's Color of the Year as a
launching point for creativity. Niveet Nagpal, president and head
designer of Omi Privé is celebrated for creating timeless designs
using a variety of well thought out colors. “I don’t like to be
boxed in by one “Color of the Year” when creating my designs.
I prefer to craft pieces with bold and vibrant greens, blues and
pinks set in warmer metals including yellow and rose gold. Not
only do they stand on their own, but they complement the 2015
Color of the Year as well.”
Allen Dolberg, principal at Zoma Color, views Marsala as a
fashion forward choice well suited to other popular colored
stones. “Continuing the earth-tone trend that features morganite
and peach sapphire, our design palette is shifting to a richer and
more robust hue of reddish brown, in line with Pantone’s Color of
12
the Year - Marsala.” So retailers like Zoma Color believe Marsala’s
hue supports other good sellers that their customers already favor.
“Marsala is a pleasant complement to the peachy tones we have
focused on these last few seasons,” he reveals.
Burmese red spinel and diamonds in 18K yellow gold; Courtesy Zoma Color.
A Seasonless Choice
Complex and charismatic, the Marsala vibe is not a one-season
wonder. Your customers can experience its versatility by pairing it
with white, off white, cream and many pastels for year-round
enjoyment. The unifying Marsala tone finds its place as a natural
earthy color seen in the most casual of styles. But its bold fullbodied tint also creates a sophisticated vibe with designer wear.
Omi Privé president Nagpal elaborates. “Because Marsala can be
considered almost a “neutral” like grey or black, it pairs well with
any bright color year for round utility. For example, we see it as the
perfect complement to bright blues in the summer or intense pinks
and reds in fall.”
Don’t overlook the compatibility this color provides for the reemergence of yellow gold as a favored metal choice, and the whitehot trend for rose gold. “Our focus is on deep, scarlet-red spinel
and rusty-rose zircons in rose gold in our newest
collection,” explained Dolberg.
Your gemstone choices are legion with this elegant color.
Tourmaline, spinel, jasper, garnet, zircon, and saturated sunstone
provide exciting options for your style conscious clientele. Let the
cultivated taste for deep wine colors known as Marsala find their
way into your customers’ collection in 2015. Cheers!
June 2015
Rockhounds We Love
The Grand Poobah of international gem bazaars occurs every
winter in Tucson AZ. Dealers, designers, retailers and collectors
from around the world descend upon this dusty desert town for a
few weeks of raucous finagling and just plain stone love. What
happens in Tucson . . . well it doesn't stay there, that's for sure.
What happens there portends the next season's trends in designer
jewelry everywhere. And this year it was all about the exotic
gemstones. Imaginative Florida based jewelry artist Pamela
Huizenga loves those quirky baubles too and she also knows what
sophisticated gem enthusiasts crave.
Picky, Picky. Picky
How does she select the stones destined for her alluring
collections? "Most of the time I see something that I become
absolutely obsessed with, like fossilized coral or dendrite agate,
and I know that I must own as much of it as I can find," she tells
us. And on occasion, the creative spirit flows another way. "There
are times when I design something and simply know ... I must find
a perfect spinel. Or I wonder, where can I find an amazing carved
aquamarine? I am a bonafide rock hound, picking up pebbles on
mountain hikes and wondering what can I do with this?"
18K yellow gold bracelet with turritella, aquamarine, diamond framed fossilized coral,
freshwater baroque pearl, Trilobite fossil, Alaskan fossilized coral, and cameo;
Courtesy Pamela Huizenga
Collectors & the Stones they Adore
Savvy collectors are drawn to Huizenga’s exquisite design
sense, the original voice she expresses in each piece, and the
quality inherent in every Made in the USA item.
The winning combination of chic style and unusual
gemstones has created devotees of Huizenga’s work. "I have
collectors who have been buying from me for several years. When
I see one of them at a trunk show wearing several pieces of my
jewelry, I'm humbled." Discover Pamela Huizenga's original
pieces at Shannon Green Collection–one of our town's most
elegant destinations with artful jewelry for trendsetting collectors.
8.45 Square cushion Tanzanian zircon, slightly heated low temperature; Courtesy
Tairona Co.
Pamela Huizenga’s multicolor gemstone bracelet
June 2015
The World's Biggest Scientific Instrument
Resumes
By Don Lincoln
We live in a land of false superlatives, with advertisements
constantly hyping this product or that as bigger, more powerful and
somehow better. It’s easy to get jaded and ignore anyone who is
making a claim that something is utterly amazing.
However, in a rare turn of truth in advertising, we live in a
time in which scientists are about to embark on a journey that
actually really is utterly amazing. Beginning in just a few days,
physicists working at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland will
start commissioning the largest and most powerful particle
accelerator ever built – the Large Hadron Collider or LHC. This
facility will shed light on some of the oldest questions ever asked
by mankind, questions of the deepest fabric of reality and the very
origins of the universe itself. These are very impressive claims
indeed and it is fair to wonder if the machine can deliver on it.
So what is the LHC? It is a huge ring, 17 miles (27 km) in
circumference. In it, two beams of protons are accelerated in
opposite directions until they are traveling at nearly the speed of
light, which is 186,000 miles per second (300,000 km/s). These
beams are then made to collide inside four huge detectors. The
temperatures in these collisions are mind-boggling, well over
100,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. These temperatures
were last prevalent throughout the universe about a tenth of a
trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. In a very real sense,
scientists are recreating the conditions of the very birth of the
universe itself and studying it using the most sophisticated
detection equipment ever devised. This is simply the first
superlative on which this equipment can deliver.
By accelerating protons to collide at the outrageous energy of
13 trillion electron volts, scientists can study objects smaller than
one ten thousandth the size of a proton. Matter consists of a series
of structures, ever decreasing in size: from our familiar world, to
molecules and then atoms. Peering at smaller structures still, we
have established that atoms are made of protons, neutrons and
electrons. Over the last few decades, we have demonstrated that
protons and neutrons are made of even smaller particles called
quarks. In fact, the last several decades, scientists have thoroughly
studied the quarks and their cousins the leptons (of which the
electron is the most familiar). The theory that describes the nature
of these tiny building blocks is called the Standard Model of
Particle physics and it is the most successful description of the
underpinnings of the universe . . . the very fabric of reality . . . ever
devised. And the LHC is poised to dig deeper, looking for even
smaller structures and even more fundamental rules that govern
them. So we see that a second superlative also applies.
The LHC has run before, albeit at only about sixty percent of
the energy it is about to achieve. During that time, it discovered the
Higgs boson, which was the last missing piece of the Standard
13
Model. Scientists were both elated and a little let down by this
discovery: elated because they confirmed that the Standard Model
worked very well, but a little let down because not finding it would
have been even more exciting. It would have meant that we’d have
to rewrite our theories and, in doing so, we’d have learned a bit
more about the rules that govern the cosmos. However, the
universe isn’t concerned with the opinion of scientists. It simply is
what it is and we must discover its secrets.
While the Standard Model is an extraordinary theory, it is
clearly incomplete. There are still mysteries to solve. For instance,
our familiar world made of atoms needs only two quarks and one
lepton, yet we’ve discovered three times what is needed. Why?
Nobody knows. Another mystery invokes Einstein’s equation E =
mc2, which is sometimes misstated as saying that energy can
convert into matter and back. While that statement is true in spirit,
when we convert energy into matter, we also make an equal
quantity of an antagonistic substance called antimatter. Touch
matter and antimatter together, and it annihilates back into energy.
The mystery of antimatter is that we believe that when the
universe was just formed, it was full of energy. As it expanded and
cooled, the energy should have converted into matter and
antimatter in equal quantities. Yet when you look throughout the
cosmos as far as our most powerful accelerators can look you see
nothing but matter. So where did the antimatter go? Again, nobody
knows.
A third mystery comes from astronomy. When we turn our
eyes to the heavens, we see that galaxies spin faster than can be
accounted for by the observed matter and the known laws of
gravity. The most popular idea to solve this curiosity invokes a
hitherto-unseen kind of matter called dark matter. While dark
matter remains an unproven hypothesis, if it exists, the LHC might
be able to make it. In a very real sense, the LHC research program
might explain the night sky.
These are but a few of the unsolved mysteries that the LHC
can investigate. During the first running period (2010 - 2012), the
LHC studied these big questions and, with the discovery of the
Higgs boson, made possible its first Nobel Prize. When the
machine is fully operational early this summer, it will collide
beams with 62 percent more energy and many more times per
second. We scientists can’t wait. The summer of 2015 will be
when we launch off into the unknown, studying realms never
before explored by mankind. We will tease out a few more of
nature’s elusive mysteries and perhaps learn the answers to
timeless questions.
No hype. Just fact.
Don Lincoln is a LHC physics researcher and science popularizer.
He writes books and magazines, makes videos, and uses all media
to bring science to the public.
Source: Huffington Post Science March 21, 2015
Geologists May Have Just Discovered a New
Layer of Earth's Mantle
Have geologists just discovered a new layer of Earth's
interior?
A new study suggests that a previously unknown rocky layer
may be lurking about 930 miles beneath our feet – and evidence
suggests that it's significantly stiffer than similar layers, which
could help explain earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
“The Earth has many layers, like an onion,” study co-author
Dr. Lowell Miyagi, an assistant professor of geology and
geophysics at the University of Utah, said in a written statement.
“Most layers are defined by the minerals that are present.
14
Essentially, we have discovered a new layer in the Earth. This
layer isn’t defined by the minerals present, but by the strength of
these minerals.”
June 2015
America’s Pacific coast. This observation has puzzled
seismologists for quite some time, but in the last year, there is new
consensus from seismologists that most slabs pool.”
An illustration of Earth's interior structure, showing geological layers
according to scale - including the mantle, located beneath Earth's thin
crust and above the core. | Johan Swanepoel via Getty Images
The Pressure Is On
For the study, the researchers used a device known as a
diamond anvil to simulate how the mineral ferropericlase reacts to
high pressure. Ferropericlase is abundant in the Earth's mantle, the
layer that's sandwiched between our planet's core and the thin crust
on which we live.
An illustration of a slab of rock sinking through the upper mantle above,
through the boundary between the upper and lower mantle at 410 miles
depth, then stalling and pooling at a depth of 930 miles.
The finding also suggests that the Earth's interior is hotter than
previously believed at that depth below the planet's surface.
Miyagi said in the statement that he had calculated that the average
temperature at the boundary of the upper and lower mantle is about
2,800 º Fahrenheit – and a scorching 3,900º F at the deeper, more
viscous layer.
“If you decrease the ability of the rock in the mantle to mix,
it’s also harder for heat to get out of the Earth, which could mean
Earth’s interior is hotter than we think,” he said.
The study was published online in the journal Nature
Geoscience on March 23, 2015.
Source: The Huffington Post 03/24/2015
Curiosity Rover Finds Nitrogen on Mars
Miyagi holding a press that houses the diamond anvil, in which minerals
can be squeezed at pressures akin to those deep within the Earth.
What did the researchers find? The stiffness, or viscosity, of
the mineral increased threefold by the time it was subjected to
pressure equal to what's found in the lower mantle (930 miles
below Earth's surface) compared to the pressure at the boundary of
the upper and lower mantle (410 miles beneath the surface). When
the researchers mixed ferropericlase with bridgmanite (another
mineral found in the lower mantle), the simulation showed that its
stiffness at 930 miles was 300 times greater than at 410 miles.
The viscosity increase came as a surprise, since it was
previously thought that viscosity varied only slightly at different
pressures and temperatures in the planet’s interior.
The Earthquake Connection
The new finding may help explain why many slabs of rock
that move and shift beneath Earth's surface stall or temporarily get
stuck at around 930 miles underground – a phenomenon thought
to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, The Salt Lake
Tribune reported.
“The result was exciting,” Miyagi said in the statement. “In
fact, previous seismic images show that many slabs appear to
‘pool’ around 930 miles, including under Indonesia and South
Further Evidence That the Red Planet was “Habitable for Life”
By Dominique Mosbergen
Another ingredient for life has been found on Mars.
NASA announced this week that the Curiosity rover has
discovered life-sustaining nitrogen on the Red Planet for the first
time.
By drilling into Martian rocks, the rover is said to have located
evidence of nitrates – compounds that contain nitrogen “in a form
that can be used by living organisms.” Nitrogen, as Discovery
News notes, is essential for life, as it’s a building block of RNA
and DNA.
The finding, NASA said, “adds to the evidence that ancient
Mars was habitable for life.”
The space agency was quick to note that "there is no evidence
to suggest that the fixed nitrogen molecules found by the team
were created by life.”
“The surface of Mars is inhospitable for known forms of life,”
NASA said.
Instead, the agency believe the nitrates are ancient and “likely
came from non-biological processes like meteorite impacts and
lightning in Mars’ distant past.”
Curiosity has previously found evidence of the other key
ingredients for life, including organic molecules and liquid water.
June 2015
15
Date
Event
Location
June 10
Mezzanine C
July ?
TBD
Details to Follow
Open House
August ?
Details to Follow
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Gold in Alaska”
October 7
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Minerals”
January 2016
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Mitch Portnoy– “Pretty in
Pink - The Joys of Tennessee Marble”
February
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Annual Members’ Show & Tell
Date
Event
Location
June 6-7
Mineral, Gem, Jewelry &
Fossil Sell & Swap
Museum Village, 1010 Rt. 17M,
Monroe, Orange Co., NY
Info: George Gardianos, Show Chairman at
(845) 683-1167
July 18-19
Herkimer, NY
New Show! Info: (315) 717-4664 or
[email protected]
July 25-26
LIMAGS Mineral Show
Cutchogue East Elementary
School, Cutchogue, NY
New Location!
August 7-9
Fossil Show
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 14-15
July 27- Aug 1, 2016
Albany, Oregon
Details to Follow
October 21-23
Rochester, New York
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Annual Benefit Auction: Wednesday Evening, June 10, 2015
Mezzanine C, Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan (57th St. & Tenth Avenue), New York City
Auction Lot Viewing from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. — Auction Proceedings from 6:15 - 9:00 p.m.
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, Nos. 7-8
Summer Meeting Reminder

There are no regular meetings of the
New York Mineralogical Club during
July or August.
The next meeting of the NYMC is on
September 9, 2015 with a special
lecture about Alaska gold digging by
Professor Steve Okulewicz.
However . . .

Alla Priceman, one of our most
esteemed members, will be the host at
this year’s Open House.
It will take place in Larchmont, NY
(Westchester) on Sunday, August 16,
2015 stating at 12:00 pm.
An RSVP is REQUIRED!! We need
to know how many people will attend
so as to plan properly. Please let us
know as soon as possible if you and
your family and friends are coming,
certainly by the first week in August.
After receiving your RSVP, we will
provide driving and/or railroad
information. (Train access via Metro
North thru Grand Central is easy!)
There will of course be food and
drink (it is a social event!) but also be
ready to enjoy the marvelous display
of Alla’s splendid mineral collection.
If you want to contribute any
additional food and drink, just
remember that in all probability it will
be a warm summer’s day!
Alla has a lovely garden that we can
spend some time in and also a
comfortable screened porch for the
less outdoorsy sorts (like me).
This is not a “regular” meeting but I
am sure I will come up with some
appropriate party fun and games for
this event.
See you there!
July/August 2015
Annual Benefit Auction:
Recreational & Rewarding
By Mitch Portnoy
On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 the
NYMC’s Annual Benefit Gem & Mineral
Auction was held at the on the Mezzanine
Level at the Holiday Inn Midtown
Manhattan.
Exactly $2,222 was raised for the Club
as all but one of the
diverse 90+lots was
bought by one of the 50
members, friends and
guests that attended this
yearly event.
This was less than we
took in last year (2014 was
a VERY good year) but
still above the 10-year
average of about $2,000.
This can be attributed to the lower number
of lots that we brought to the auction – only
90 when we usually have 120.
The primary reason for this lot number
reduction is that many of the better
minerals, which would usually be placed
into this auction, were sold earlier in the
year at the January 2015 Special Sale. We
simply decided to get the minerals that were
donated out to the members and not wait
five long months for their distribution.
The secondary reason is that I decided
NOT to include some auction private presales or post-sales into the total. The
amount raised stated above is digitally and
temporally accurate.
The third reason – and this is
something to look forward to – is that any
of the garnet-related donations that I asked
of the NYC Mineral Show dealers have
been held back. This is because they will be
offered in a special section at the Annual
Banquet in October which has a garnet
theme!
All of the gems, minerals, books, etc.
are donated with no strings attached to the
Club. One-hundred percent of the monies
taken in go to the Club. There are no
“consignment” items offered where a
percentage of the returns going to the
“donor”.
This is the largest single money-raising
event for the Club. It is critical that we have
this kind of program since the total yearly
membership dues do not cover all of the
annual expenses.
Current major club expenses include
(1) monthly meeting room rental; (2)
monthly paper bulletin production and
mailing; (3) speaker fees; (4) banquet
expenses; (5) federation
dues; (6) mineral show
expenses; (7) back-office
expenses and supplies; and
(8) management costs.
The overall logistics
and auction proceedings
this year could not have
been better in my opinion
and in the opinion of about
a dozen enthusiastically
positive emails I received before noon of
the next day. Let’s examine why this was
the case.
First of all – and this cannot be
overstated – a lot of time and effort was
expended in the pre-auction preparation.
This includes soliciting interesting and
varied donations, organizing them into
groups that reflect the great diversity of
club members’ collecting interests, labeling
and mounting items to enhance their
attractiveness and – for the first time . . .
(Continues in President’s Message p. 2)
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Nanominerals III. 3
Light: Beyond the Bulb. . . . . . . . . . . 4
Moon’s Origin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Benefit Auction Prices Realized.. . . . 6
Graphene Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: Summer Break!. . . . . . . . . . 8
Getting to Springfield Mineral Show. 8
Topics in Gemology: Charms. . . . . . 9
Banquet Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Banquet Reservation Form. . . . . . 11
Ashes to Beads!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Beware Fake Jewelry!. . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mineral Show Advice.. . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Joy of Rockhounding. . . . . . . . 14
2
2015 Benefit Auction
. . . the creation of an illustrated auction
catalog that was sent in advance to all
members for whom we have an email
address. (This is for all but about 10% of
the members!)
I cannot exaggerate how popular this
action has been. I received 25+ emails from
members who LOVED having this in
advance and this praise continued at the
auction itself. In fact, one of the new digital
features of this year’s auction was to project
the catalog’s images while the auction was
going on instead of me presenting the item
and describing it to the attendees.
The ensuing procedural benefit was the
fact the runners did not have to move any of
the lots from their locations on the tables
that were set up during the auction viewing
time until someone won the item. As the
primary runner noted, “It went much more
smoothly and was considerably less harried
than last year.”
I had my first major experience trying
to photograph minerals, gems and jewelry
in the creating of this catalog and I can tell
you that it is brutally difficult undertaking.
I am happy to say that at least three moreexperienced (and better equipped) members
have offered to help me with this next year
and I certainly will take them up on their
offer. We will absolutely create a digital
illustrated catalog like this again in 2016
with better pictures to be sure! (And maybe
even again this year for the banquet silent
auction offerings – stay tuned!)
During the auction itself, as last year,
Diane Beckman recorded the winning bids
into the club’s Auction Management
System which is built in Microsoft Access.
We had registered auction attendees in this
system and given them a numbered bidder
card before the auction started. This
database was projected onscreen during the
action which helped in ensuring the 100%
accuracy in terms of both bidder and
winning amount – any incorrect entries
were noticed and immediately adjusted.
We did, however, have Rich Rossi
employing an analog (i.e., paper and pen)
system of recording this information at the
same time, just in case. We may bravely
eliminate this manual record keeping
redundancy next year.
At the auction’s end the system
generated 100% accurate bills and receipts,
making the summary payments by
successful auction bidders extremely fast
and easy.
And in addition, our treasurer and her
assistant were then able to organize and
balance the monies to the penny!
I want to thank everyone for making
this year’s auction a successful, pleasant
and low-stress event including:
(1) All Donors and Buyers
(2) Diane Beckman (organizing & etc.)
(3) Rich Rossi (set up, recording)
(4) Mark Kucera (running)
(5) Gail Jaffe (running)
(6) Vivien Gornitz (quality control)
(7) Anna Schumate (running)
July/August 2015

Members were asked to confirm 2016
meeting dates and to make suggestions
about lecturers for 2016.
Special Event: Annual Benefit Auction
After a grueling two hour setup and about 90
minutes of enthusiastic viewing, the 2015
Annual Benefit Action was held. See page 1
for the review.
Members in the News

Website in the Works (Really!)
For years we have needed and wanted
a club website but I always felt that if we
did not do this right, we should not do it at
all. I am pleased to report, after some fitful
starts over the years, we REALLY are in the
process of getting a functioning (and useful)
website up and running.
Thanks to the encouragement of
member Charles Snider and his American
Geode partner Joe Krabak, we are close to
having an operating, well-designed website.
This will be a multi-month project In
since some things need to be operating
immediately and always be accurate (e.g.,
next meeting date and lecture) while other
planned sections (e.g., a complete NYMC
bulletin archive) are less critical.
I looked at many other club’s websites
and mostly found things that we would
avoid. But I did create an outline of the
desired content that would be rolled out in
the future. If you want a copy of this
outline, let me know (via email) and I will
send it to you.
An article about Naomi Sarna
(“Perseverance Pays Off”) appeared in
the June 2015 MJSA Journal.
Both Eric Hoffman and Elyse Karlin
will be featured speakers at the NAJA
Education Conference to be held in
Washington, D.C. on August 8 - 11,
2015.
MANY Club members are either
referenced or extensively written about
in the Supplement to the May/June 2015
Mineralogical Record (about Irénée du
Pont and the Mineralogical Collection of
the University of Delaware) including
George Kunz, Larry Conklin, George
English, Charles Palache, and others.
September: Light Game #5
(Metallic Luster)
Meeting Dates for 2016
January 13
June 8 (Auction)
February 10
September 14
March 9
*October 19 (Banquet)
April 13
*November 16
May 11
December 14
* 3rd Wednesday of the Month
The above dates have been pre-reviewed by
our “regular” group of reviewers. If,
however, you see something that conflicts
with something, say something soon!
June 10, 2015
Attendance: 50
President Mitch Portnoy presided and
served as primary auctioneer.
Announcements:
Open House information was provided;
Springfield Show mass transportation
information was provided;
A NYMC website update was
provided;
And Also in September . . .
July/August 2015
3
grown diamond coatings). But the improved hardness generally
Part III: Nanominerals – Ultra-Hard Diamonds
comes at the expense of fracture toughness, or tenacity. Thus,
Diamonds enjoy a special status as the hardest known
“harder” diamonds tend to be more brittle. However, the newly
substance, but not all diamonds are created equal. Carbonado, the
synthesized nanotwinned nanodiamonds not only are harder and
black polycrystalline variety of diamond, lab-grown hot, vaportougher, but also more resistant to oxidation at very high
deposited (CVD) diamond coatings, and nanodiamonds are all
temperatures.
harder than gemmy diamond single crystals. A recently
To create the ultra-hard nanodiamonds, Quan Huang and his
synthesized novel form of “nanotwinned” nanodiamond surpasses
team in China and the U.S. fabricated carbon nano-grains
those in “unprecedented” hardness and stability.
consisting of concentric graphite-like shells, known as “onion
carbon nanoparticles”, starting with black carbon powders. After
being further subjected to high pressure-high temperature (HPHT)
conditions, the synthesized material became transparent
nanotwinned, nanocrystalline diamond. In nanotwinned diamond,
nanometer-size crystallites share some lattice planes (as in larger
eye-visible crystals, but here on an ultra-tiny scale). Individual
crystallites measured around 5 nanometers in thickness, on
average—the smallest ever seen in diamond (1 nanometer = 1
billionth of a meter). The pervasive twinning created multiple
stacking faults. In the extremely small grains, these crystal defects
produce superior hardness and toughness, because the multiple
twin boundaries inhibit propagation of fractures. The nanotwinned
nanodiamond shows a remarkable high Vickers hardness of nearly
200! Nanotwinned nanodiamond also demonstrates significantly
improved thermal stability. Oxidation of carbon in the
nanotwinned diamond begins around 1000 ºC (1832 ºF), some 200
ºC (392 ºF) higher than in natural diamond crystals.
Nanodiamond particles a few hundred carbon atoms across
already find numerous applications in biomedical research, as lowfriction lubrication fluids, and in solid composite materials for
To create a harder diamond, researchers used tiny particles of carbon, layered like
industrial use. While even tinier nanotwinned nanodiamonds have
onions, and subjected them to high temperatures and pressures. A model of a
now been successfully synthesized in the laboratory, it remains to
10-shell "onion" carbon shown here. Credit: Nature.
be determined whether the process can be extended to the
industrial scale. Further testing will also need to be done to
Hardness represents the ability of a mineral (or any solid
evaluate other important mechanical properties of this new
material) to resist abrasion, or scratching. Hardness differs from
material for commercial applications.
tenacity, or toughness--the resistance to breakage. The commonlyFurther Reading
used Mohs scale assigns talc or graphite a 1 and diamond a 10, on
Boland, J., 2014. Diamond gets harder. Nature 510:220-221.
a relative scale in ascending order of hardness. The more
Gornitz, V., 2010. Harder than diamond. Bulletin of the New York
quantitative Vickers scale is exponential, rating copper and gold
Mineralogical Club. March 2010, p. 3.
close to zero, quartz slight over 10, corundum roughly 25, and
Huang, Q. and 10 others, 2014. Nanotwinned diamond with
diamond a whopping 100 gigapascals. The hardness of diamond
unprecedented hardness and stability. Nature 510:250-253.
increases as the crystal size decreases (as in carbonado, or CVD-
Figure: Onion carbon nanoparticles and a bulk sample synthesized at 10GPa and 1,850°C. a. HRTEM image of onion carbon nanoparticles. b. TEM image of the sample showing
nanotwinned microstructure. Inset: photograph of the black opaque sample (~2 mm in diameter). c. HRTEM image of the area marked with the box in b.
4
July/August 2015
Light: Going Beyond the Bulb
By Kimberly K. Arcand
Images taken from satellites in space in different types of light help us better
predict weather and understand the science that drives it. Credit:
NASA/JSC/Mike Trenchard
In this piece of art, light bulbs were placed in a medical X-ray machine.
The artist then added color to the individual light bulbs to create the
desired effect. Credit: Dr. Paula Fontaine/www.RadiantArtStudios.com
Light is one of those things that we almost inevitably take for
granted. In fact, many of us might not realize the extent that we
overlook its contributions to our lives, because it's hard to see –
literally – just how much it does.
The light that humans can detect with their eyes is but a mere
fraction of the total light out there. Light takes many forms,
including radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays
and gamma rays.
In addition to its pivotal role in various industrial processes,
light may very well represent our future for powering the planet.
After all, the sunlight contains enormous amounts of energy that,
if we could efficiently capture it, it could provide sustainable
power for billions of people.
The electromagnetic spectrum includes wavelengths and energies from
radio to gamma rays. Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Solar panels allow us to harness some of the vast energy that is provided
to us every day from the Sun. Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL
We use light for many purposes including some basic ones such as
illuminating our way. This image combines eight different photos, each with
exposures of 30 seconds, which show car headlights along a highway. In the
future, reflected lasers may power more of our headlights, providing a more
powerful and energy-efficient (yet still safe) beam that lights our way
through the night.
We rely on light – both natural and sources made by humans
– to brighten our world. In the form of radio waves and
microwaves, light is also used for communication and navigation
through cellphones and GPS. Medical tools that use light,
including the highest-energy light of X-rays and gamma rays, help
us monitor our bodies and attack certain diseases such as cancer.
Scientists use instruments on the ground and in space that
detect different types of light like infrared to monitor our climate
and forecast our weather. Astronomers capture light in all types
from the cosmos to understand distant galaxies, to look for signs
of life beyond Earth, and to learn more about our own planet.
For these and many other reasons, the United Nations has
declared 2015 to be the “International Year of Light.” We've put
together a collection of spectacular images in an online exhibit
called “Light: Beyond the Bulb” to help celebrate light and all of
the amazing things it can do. Here is a sampling of facts about the
wonders of light:
Light comes in different forms. The light that we see with our
eyes is just a fraction of all light. Light encompasses
wavelengths ranging from radio waves to gamma rays in what
is called the “electromagnetic spectrum.”
Nothing in the Universe can travel faster than light. In a
vacuum, light travels at over 300,000 kilometers (186,000
miles) per second. This means light could circle the Earth 7.5
times in one second.
As light travels, its path can be bent when it goes from one
medium to another (such as air to water). It can also be
blocked (when a shadow occurs, for example), reflected (as
with a mirror), or absorbed (like when a stone is heated by
infrared light from the Sun.)
July/August 2015
5
as a result, the gravitational speed at which we would fall through
each layer changed too.
Klotz measured the different densities found in Earth’s interior
using seismic data. Indeed, our planet has a less dense crust and
mantle and a more dense core, Science magazine reported.
A paper describing the new thought experiment results was
published in the March 2015 issue of the American Journal of
Physics.
“This is the kind of paper we love,” Dr. David Jackson, editor
of the journal and a physicist at Dickinson College in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, told Science magazine. “This is a nice addition to
the classic problem.”
Secrets of Moon's Origin Revealed
Because of their capacity to carry massive amounts of data in the form of
light, optical fibers serve as the backbone of the Internet. Almost every
video and photo you download and nearly every email and text you send
travels over optical fiber, sometimes across the world. The ability to
transport confined light inside bent fibers means that they can also be
used in endoscopes for imaging the interiors of both people and
machines. Credit: Optoelectronics Research Centre, Southampton, UK
An artist’s rendering shows a planetary collision. The Moon may have formed from
the debris of such an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body. | NASA
While moving at 17,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 240 miles above
the Earth's surface on the International Space Station, NASA astronaut
Don Petit was able to capture the lights from our planet in a unique way.
His time-lapse photographs–taken from this unusual vantage
point–feature star trails, terrestrial lights, and auroras. Credit: NASA/JSC
Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke are co-authors of “Your Ticket to
the Universe: A Guide to Exploring the Cosmos” published by
Smithsonian Books. The images in this article come from Light: Beyond
the Bulb, an open-source international exhibition program for the United
Nation's International Year of Light 2015 to showcase the incredible
variety of light-based science being researched today across the
electro-magnetic spectrum, across scientific disciplines, and across
technological platforms.
Source: Huffington Post Science March 17, 2015
Here’s How Long it Would Take to Fall
Through the Center of Earth
Just how long would it take to fall through the center of the
Earth, traveling from one side of our planet to the other?
Physicists have long calculated the answer to that question as
being 42 minutes, but now, new calculations show that the
theoretical trip would actually take around 38 minutes – and we
can blame gravity for the discrepancy.
The traditional calculation to measure a fall through Earth
assumes that our planet has a constant density throughout its many
layers. Since the gravitational attraction between two objects is
proportional to their masses (or density) and inversely proportional
to the square of the distance between them, if Earth’s density were
constant, the only change in gravity we’d experience would be due
to how far we were from Earth’s center.
But as Alexander Klotz, a graduate student at McGill
University in Canada, came up with the new calculations, he took
into consideration how Earth’s density changes layer by layer. And
Scientists have long believed that the moon formed from
debris created when a Mars-sized object crashed into Earth about
4.5 billion years ago. But there’s one very big problem with this
so-called giant impact hypothesis.
If the moon indeed formed from the collision between Earth
and another object, why is the moon a near chemical match to our
planet? Shouldn’t it contain chemically distinct remnants of that
other object too?
“In terms of composition, the Earth and moon are almost
twins, their compositions differing by at most few parts in a
million,” Dr. Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti, an astrophysicist
at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, told Space.com.
“This contradiction has cast a long shadow on the giant-impact
model.”
Finally, a new study conducted by an international team of
scientists – including Mastrobuono-Battisti –offers a way to
explain away this problem.
Previously, scientists believed that the likelihood that Earth
and its impactor had similar makeups was only around 1 percent.
But the new research ups those odds to 20-40 percent.
For the research, the team analyzed data from the computer
simulations of 40 artificial solar systems to examine how often
planets are similar to big objects that hit them, Smithsonian
Magazine reported.
It turned out that since many planets and their impactors form
at similar distances from the sun, they had similar compositions
–similar enough to account for the resemblances found between
Earth and the moon.
“On average, impactors are more similar to the planets they
impact compared with different planets in the same system,”
Mastrobuono-Battisti told Discovery News. “Our study was the
first to reconsider this issue, now exploring it with large data and
. . . wide range of models.”
The study was published online in Nature on April 9, 2015.
6
June 2015 Benefit Auction Prices Realized
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Amethyst (Quartz). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Orange Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Dolomite & Mimetite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Schulenburgite (Rare!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Mimetite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dolomite on Mottramite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Smithsonite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Calcite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Gemmy Cerussite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Cerussite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Heulandite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Dolomite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Calcite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Calcite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Prehnite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Descloizite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Red Chalcedony & Apophyllite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
(1) Quartz & (1) Amethyst Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Gemstone Bead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Amethyst Bead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Botswana Agate Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Carnelian and Agate Bead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Blue Beaded Bracelet.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Bendable Pearl & Wire Bracelet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Pearl & Red Serpentine Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Crystal & Silver Chain Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Heavy Multibead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Pendant & Silver Chain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mother-of-Pearl Pendant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mother-of-Pearl Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Peridot in Silver Ring.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Lapis and Silver Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Opal Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Multi-Gemstone Earrings.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Interchangeable Glass Heart Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
(2) Faceted Pink/Orange Sapphires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
(3) Faceted Multicolor Sapphires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Polished Rhodonite (!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ruby (!) in Feldspar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
(2) Tumbled Charoites (!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Large Pink Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Medium Pink Moonstone.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Iridescent Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cat’s Eye Moonstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Colorful Onyx Dish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Carved Turtle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
“Picture” Dendrites in Limestone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
“Picture” Dendrites in Limestone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Carved & Polished Fluorite Obelisk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Sliced Polished Amethyst Stalactite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Sliced Polished Amethyst Stalactite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Pyramids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Herkimer Diamond Book & Specimens. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
(4) Mineralogical Record Collector Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Rare and Beautiful Minerals by Hoffman. . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Minerals and Gems by John S. White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Minerals by George Robinson (signed). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Vintage Jewelry Design by Caroline Cox. . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Fossil Fish Plate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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July/August 2015
Enchodus Tooth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Meteorite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Amber Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Copper ps. after Aragonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Limonite ps. after Marcasite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Trilobite Fossil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Calcite Stalactite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Fluorescent Fluorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Celestite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Labradorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Serpentine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Scolecite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Mounted Thunderegg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Volborthite & Chrysocolla.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Stilbite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Muscovite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HUGE Feldspar/Aquamarine.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Duftite, Mottramite, Mimetite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Quartz Cluster.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Shungite & Pyrite Cabochon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Tourmaline and Sphene Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Ruby and Anapaite Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Herkimer, Pyrite, Apatite Thumbnails.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Green Leather Jewelry Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Glass Rhinoceros Figurine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3D Laser Etched Crystal Paperweight of NYC. . . . . . . . 60
Full Sheet Mineral Stamps (10¢). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Full Sheet Mineral Stamps (29¢). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Southwestern USA Fetish (Pipestone & Turquoise). . . . 15
Southwestern USA Fetish (Tagua Nut & Turquoise). . . 10
Phlogopite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Hemimorphite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Pyrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Calcite & Pyrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Total Realized$2222
Average Lot Price: ~24
% Sold: 99%
Analysis By Price Category
$1 - $10: 24 lots (26%)
$11 - $25: 41 lots (44%)
$26 - $50: 21 lots (23%)
$51 - $75: 6 lots (6%)
$76 - $100+: 1 lot (1%)
July/August 2015
Aha Moment Brings Better Way To Make
World’s Most Amazing Material – Graphene
By David Freeman
Graphene just might be the world’s most incredible material. A
honeycomb-like sheet of pure carbon only one atom thick, it’s one
million times thinner than a human hair and yet 200 times stronger
than steel. It’s also an excellent conductor of heat and electricity
and is stretchable, flexible, transparent, and impermeable.
And now scientists at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif. say they
have figured out how to make the stuff on an industrial scale–a
breakthrough that could open the floodgates to a seemingly endless
array of graphene-based products.
Game-changing products. How about a cell phone you could fold
up like a handkerchief and stick in your pocket? Or a giant video
screen you could hang on the wall like a sheet? Or how about
ultra-fast-charging batteries, or super-efficient see-through solar
cells?
All those and many more products may be available in the
not-too-distant future, Dr. David A. Boyd, a staff scientist at the
university and the researcher credited with developing the new
graphene-making process, told The Huffington Post.
“You could imagine something crazy,” Boyd told the
Pasadena Star-News. “You could wrap a building in graphene to
keep it from falling over.”
Faster, better, cheaper. The new process is faster and simpler
than the usual approach to making graphene. Instead of 10 hours
and up to 10 separate steps, it involves one step and takes just five
minutes, according to a written statement released by the
university. And unlike the usual approach, which involves
temperatures of 1,000º Celsius (1,800º Fahrenheit), the new
process works at temperatures no higher than 420º C. That’s cool
enough to be compatible with existing electronics manufacturing
processes, according to Boyd.
“With this new technique, we can grow large sheets of
electronic-grade graphene in much less time and at much lower
temperatures,” Boyd said in the statement. And those lower
temperatures mean fewer defects in the graphene sheets.
Scanning tunneling microscopic images showing individual carbon
molecules that make up sheet of graphene.
7
Boyd said the new process grew out of an attempt he made to
reproduce a previously described method of fabricating graphene,
in which a copper surface is heated and then exposed to methane
(which supplies the carbon atoms that form the graphene).
A lucky phone call. Boyd wasn’t having any luck until a
phone call distracted him and he inadvertently let the copper heat
for longer than the usual time. When he returned from the call, he
discovered that graphene had indeed formed–because the extra
heating had removed a key impurity.
“It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” Boyd said in the statement. “I
realized then that the trick to growth is to have a very clean
surface, one without the copper oxide.”
Further refinements in the process showed that the copper
oxide could be removed without high temperatures. Said Boyd,
“We used a different chemistry.”
Dr. David Boyd with Dr. Nai-Chang Yeh, a professor of physics at Caltech.
A Nobel past. Graphene was discovered by scientists at the
University of Manchester in England on Oct. 22, 2004. The
scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.
A paper describing the new process was published in the
March 18 issue of the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com March 19, 2015
And Coming Soon!
The Club’s Newest Special Publication
8
July/August 2015
Collector’s Series – “The 100" – On Summer Break!
Getting to the East Coast Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts
Dates: August 7–9, 2015 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Hours: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Friday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $6:00
200 dealers from all over the U.S. and abroad, offering a variety of items related to earth sciences. Door prizes, guest speakers,
museum quality exhibits, and a large wholesale section. Air-conditioned hall.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Any of the times or prices subject to change. PLEASE check website for updates!!!
Getting There By Train (AMTRAK)
Website: http://www.amtrak.com
(1) There is a train to Springfield, Massachusetts that departs from
Penn Station on 34th Street in Manhattan.
(2) I suggest you take the train that departs at about 7:00 AM. (The
departure times are slightly different each day of the week!) You
change trains in New Haven about 90 minutes later (8:30ish) and
arrive in Springfield, MA at about 10:00 AM, about the time the
show opens to the public.
(3) The round trip cost (NYC-Springfield, Springfield-NYC) is
about $68 (I think).
(4) When you get to Springfield, you then need to take a cab (they
will be available at the train station there) to the Better Living
Center at the Eastern States Exposition, 1305 Memorial Ave.,
West Springfield, Massachusetts which is across the river there.
The cab will cost about $10.
NOTE: Remember to get a card with the telephone number of
the cab company. You will need to make arrangements later to
get BACK to the train station to get home. Do this in advance
(at 3:00 PM?) with a big enough time cushion!!! This is not
NYC where there are cabs everywhere at all places and at all
times!
(4) Get back to the train station in Springfield via cab. It will again
cost about $10.
(5) On SATURDAY there is a return train that departs Springfield
at 5:25 PM and, after changing trains in New Haven at about 7:00
PM, will get you back to Penn Station about 9:00 PM. NOTE:
The return train schedule is different on both Friday and
Sunday. Please check the specific schedules!
Getting There By Bus (Greyhound or Peter Pan)
Website: https://www.greyhound.com
(1) There is a bus to Springfield, Massachusetts that departs from
Port Authority on 42nd Street in Manhattan.
(2) I suggest you take the bus that departs at 5:30 AM on Saturday.
It arrives in Springfield at 9:20 AM, a little before the show opens.
(There is also an 8:00 AM that will arrive at about Noon but the
show will have already been open for 2 hours.) Check for possible
schedule differences if you go on either Friday or Sunday!
(3) The round trip cost (NYC-Springfield, Springfield-NYC) is
about $44 (I think).
(4) When you get to Springfield, you then need to take a cab (they
will be available at the bus station there) to the Better Living
Center at the Eastern States Exposition, 1305 Memorial Ave.,
West Springfield, Massachusetts which is across the river there.
The cab will cost about $10.
NOTE: Remember to get a card with the telephone number of
the cab company. You will need to make arrangements later to
get BACK to the train station to get home. Do this in advance
(at 3:00 PM?) with a big enough time cushion!!! This is not
NYC where there are cabs everywhere at all places and at all
times!
(4) Get back to the bus station in Springfield via cab. It will again
cost about $10.
(5) On SATURDAY there is a return bus that departs Springfield
at 5:45 PM and will get you back to Port Authority about 9:00 PM.
The next bus leaves at 7:15 PM and will get you back to Port
Authority by 10:30 PM. NOTE: The bus schedule is possibly
different on both Friday and Sunday. Please check the specific
schedules!
July/August 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
A Charmed Life
Jewelry tells the story of our life. One jewelry type in
particular – the charm, is most iconic for explaining life’s
milestones in a single glance. Is there an Eiffel tower charm
dangling from a bracelet? We know where you’ve been!
Deep Roots
Charms are an early invention as evidenced from ancient
African archeological sites dating back 75,000 years where shell
adornments for early man have been discovered. Ancient
Egyptians put these little treasures to work by using them for
identification, and as totems of faith and luck. Of more
contemporary relevance, charm bracelets became de rigueur for
fashionable society ladies when Queen Victoria started a trend
amongst European nobility in the 19th century.
One would think that tough times would quash the demand
for charm bracelets. But they actually flourished throughout the
Great Depression. During the 1920s and into the 1930s,
platinum, gold and diamond accented charms were manufactured
in abundance. Then, American teens and silver screen idols
fueled the ardor for these miniature works of art during their
heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Film legends like Lauren Bacall,
Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Crawford kept these petite ornaments
in the forefront of jewelry must-haves. First Lady Jacqueline
Kennedy’s famous charm bracelet from the early 1960s was
chockablock with hints to what life was like in Camelot.
Carousel
Snowman
Royal Flush
Goes Around Comes Around
Fast forward to the 21st century and one may assume that
charms have told all the stories they have to tell, causing jewelry
fans to move on. A younger demographic today has never
experienced those earlier charms created in their glory days of
the mid-20th century. Instead, over the last decades, colorful bead
charms have flourished among jewelry lovers. Similar to the way
in which last century’s charms were collected, they can be self
purchased or gifted one at a time. But that’s where the similarity
ends. Bead charms are just colored rondelles after all. No one
will ever lean in for a closer look and ask if you went to Florida
when admiring a ceramic bead. But a little golden gator dangling
coyly off a bracelet will strike up that conversation.
The undeniable aspect of self expression inherent to the
story-telling in charms resonates with the collector who craves
personalized jewelry. No two lives are the same, so no two charm
bracelets will be either. This fact has reenergized collectors of all
ages to embrace figurative charms that are actual objects of
something identifiable. Real charms are making real headways
in 2015.
The Power of One
Vintage and estate jewelers are a different breed than other
luxury purveyors. Contemporary jewelry dealers rely on their
brand’s ability to produce quantity to satisfy retailer’s demands
around the country. Vintage and estate dealers rely on the
complete opposite. Their goods were always painstakingly
created to be one of a kind. The rarer the better. And every
antique jewelry dealer is always on the hunt for that certain
something that will never come around again.
One of our industry’s most reliable sources for quality
vintage and antique jewelry is husband and wife co-owners at
eFiligree. Veteran jewelry wholesalers, Tuvia and Dori Paul
recently came into possession of a treasure trove of new oldstock charms. They immediately knew they were onto
something rare. Their source revealed that the lot of gold
charms, some with gemstones or diamonds, some with enamel,
had been stored and forgotten for decades. While it’s not exactly
clear how old they are, the charm themes and other information
date them to the 1940s-1950s, with some being earlier.
It was only after carefully examining the charms one after
another, did they grasp exactly what they had. The level of
detailed workmanship in these miniature sculptures was
extraordinary even for the era in which they were produced.
Several of the clever charms boast movable components. A
Jonah and the Whale charm exposes a man’s head popping out
from the wide mouth of a big fish. A doctor’s bag charm opens
to reveal a pink enameled newborn inside.
A Beguiling Hoard
The subject matter of some of the charms helps date them.
For example, a nicely detailed boot charm boasts a smiling kitty
emerging from the top. Children from the 1930s and 1940s
recognize this symbolism as Puss in Boots. Another charm was
puzzling until research revealed that a little golden fox and stork
(or crane) depicts an Aesop’s Fable popular with children in the
1920s.
Doctor Suite
Newborn Suite
In this hoard were more readily recognizable themed
charms like various animals, and sports equipment. Wildly
popular bar charms, from the mid century, like cocktail glasses
and even a mini-bar amuse. But what was this? There amongst
the lot glistened a gold and white enameled toilet seat, perfect
in its cheeky wonderfulness. There’s a paint bucket and brush
covered with red paint-like enamel —pull it out to read “Paint
the Town Red”. One can only imagine the intended recipient’s
delight receiving this darling treat which pairs perfectly with a
pretty little champagne bottle charm.
10
Even seasoned antique jewelry wholesalers like the Paul’s
were taken aback by the sheer quantity and unexpected themes
portrayed in their cache. With each charm, they stood
mesmerized. Dori was flummoxed by “the sheer quantity of them
and the fact that each one was more unique or funny or brazen
than the last.” She’s not alone in this adoration. They’ve shown
some of these tiny treats to special clients. “Customers love the
depth and breadth of them—marveling at an old desk, or a diner
counter with miniature bar stools, to carnival rides and on and
on.”
Why Retailers Love Them
One retailer, Eve Celsi, at Maloys Jewelry in Portland, OR
got first looks at the charms. “From an antique jewelry dealer’s
perspective, viewing Tuvia Paul’s collection is about as close to
time travel as I can ever expect. This type of charm, with moving
parts, or enamel, or both, is incredibly rare in any condition.”
The rarity factor plus good condition enhances their appeal and
value. “To see them in original, mint, perfect condition like this,
and in multiples, no less, is pretty much unheard of. Tuvia has
charms I have never seen before in any condition… charms that
aren’t even in any of the books,” Celsi explains.
Precious metal charms are still being manufactured today of
course. But the vintage charms have a special . . . charm to them,
Celsi found. “Even in cases where Tuvia has multiples of the
same design, the lettering, or the expressions on the tiny hand
painted faces, are slightly different on each one. They are full of
the personality of the artisan that made them.”
It’s no surprise that an expert who understands the value in
these charms would fall in love with some. “Several of the
charms wound up in my own personal collection,” Celsi
confessed. “I know I will never see a selection like this again.
One is the tiny gold Puss in Boots. Besides that, [I acquired] one
of the oddest charms I’ve ever seen; a little enameled rotisserie
chicken, spinning on a spit in an oven.”
Along with beautiful charms of painted birds, and musical
instruments including a moving accordion charm, Celsi is drawn
to the quirky ones like the toilet seat charm resplendent in its
white enamel. “One of my favorites is a small round shadow box.
When you push the buttons on the side, a pair of silhouettes
moves together and kiss.”
This remarkable discovery of new-old stock charms has
spawned some fresh devotees, Celsi discovered. “Even people
that aren’t really into charms, or sadly think that “charms” mean
beads, are completely delighted by the artistry and wit of these
tiny, charming time capsules.”
July/August 2015
July/August 2015
11
Bring an additional friend or loved one!
129th Anniversary New York Mineralogical Club Banquet
Date:
Time:
Place:
Cost:
October 14, 2015 [Wednesday Evening]
6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. [Social Hour & Silent Auction from 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.]
Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, 57th Street Between Ninth & Tenth Avenues, NYC
$30 for Members/Guests (Advance Payment); $35 for Non-Members (or Payment at the Door)
Gala Dinner Menu (tentative)
Salad
Choice of Entree:
chicken • fish • beef
Potatoes & Vegetables
Selection of Breads & Rolls
Red & White Wine
Soft Drink Assortment
“Garnet” Dessert Selection
Coffee & Tea
Special Guest Lecturer
Dr. Charles Merguerian, Renowned Geologist & Educator
“Geology and Mineralogy of the 86th Street / Second Ave
Subway Station Complex ”
Amount
Please reserve _______ seat(s) for me at the Banquet @ $30.00 ($35.00) each.
I will probably be ordering G Salmon G Chicken G Beef for my dinner entree(s).
Also included are my 2016 New York Mineralogical Club membership dues ($25 Individual, $35 Family).
I am adding a wine/dessert donation to help make the banquet an affair to remember. (Each bottle costs about $25.)
Please reserve a set of the following boxed Note Card Sets for me (Includes Envelopes for $6.00 each):
G Garnet! G Mineral & Gem Bookplates G Jade G Native Elements G Crystallography G Thin Sections
G Diamonds G Birthday Mineral Cards G Malachite G Quasicrystals G Lapis Lazuli G Quartz
I wish to make an additional donation as a sponsor to help support the Banquet & the NYMC.
» Total Included
Comments:
Name(s)
Street Address
Apt. No.
City
Phone
State
Zip
Email
Send in the reply order form below by October 12, 2015. We must receive this RSVP in order to guarantee your reservation(s).
Make your check payable to the “New York Mineralogical Club” and send it to: New York Mineralogical Club Banquet, P.O. Box 77,
Planetarium Station, NYC, NY 10024-0077. Or call Mitch Portnoy (212) 580-1343 or email him at [email protected] to place your
reservations.
12
Your Loved One’s Ashes Into Beads
By Katie Sola
They say your loved ones never leave you, but if you want to
carry their memory with you always, Merry Coor will craft their
ashes into a stunning memorial bead.
“The bead is the first adornment that people ever wore. I think
people are drawn to the bead because of that,” Coor told The
Huffington Post.
Coor made her first memorial
bead in 2014. A couple had asked her
to incorporate the ashes of a friend
into the glass beads she’s been
making for 15 years.
“It was a pretty huge honor and
privilege and intimate thing to do
with these people’s ashes,” she said,
later describing a tearful embrace
with the couple. “I realized that this
was something I could do for people. I could make a difference.”
Now, clients send her the ashes of their pets and loved ones
through her Etsy store, which is a sideline to her Talisman Beads
store in Eureka, California.
As part of her process, she invites clients to send along photos,
letters and music associated with their lost loved ones. Although
she hears tragic stories at times, Coor says she makes sure she’s in
a good mood before getting to work and simply remembers how
loved each person or pet was.
“I think you put the energy in there, how you’re feeling.
You’re just going to put good intentions in it,” she said.
Coor crafts all her beads herself. First she makes round beads
by applying heat from a torch to rods of silvered glass, then she
applies the ash in a spiral pattern. A thin coating of clear glass
seals the design.
Making one bead takes “15 years and 45 minutes,” Coor
joked.
According to her Etsy shop, the beads start at $108.
Since her shop started getting attention online, she says she’s
received 100 orders, about as many as she’d had in the past year.
“I’m getting orders from Uzbekistan. From all over the world.
It’s overwhelming,” she said, adding that employees are helping
her with paperwork and finishing the completed beads.
Her customers seem to value the ability to carry their loved
ones close to their hearts.
Karen Hall-Thompson, an Etsy customer, cared for her brother
for two years before he passed away from ALS.
“I wanted to have my brother with me through the rest of my
life, just as I had the privilege of seeing him through the end of
his,” she told HuffPost. “This process is very personal and special,
not a cold and inhuman production line.”
Customer Danielle Marsalis had a bead made from the
remains of her beloved dog Chloe. She said she appreciates that
the bead, which she says is “very flattering,” doesn’t look like it’s
made of ashes.
“Every time I open jewelry box it brings both a smile to my
face and a tear to my eye,” she said.
Ora North, who also lost a dog, had beads made for her and
her husband. A jewelry designer friend then put them on necklaces
(as seen below).
“We didn’t get enough time with him, so the beads have
allowed us to keep him close a little bit longer,” she said.
“I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to lose a brother or a
sister or a spouse or a child, but I know that what I’m doing really
July/August 2015
helps people,” Coor told Humboldt Made. “I get beautiful letters
back from people that are overwhelmed with the beads that I make
for them.”
So, what’s her ultimate wish?
“I hope that the beads give you comfort, and help with your
grief,” Coor wrote on her Etsy page.
Buyer Beware:
Jewels Purchased at Vacation Destinations
May Be Overpriced or Fake
They’re a common sight at Caribbean vacation destinations —
jewelry store workers standing in doorways, promising great deals
to passersby. But a Rossen Reports investigation revealed that
even during vacation, it’s best for
buyers to beware.
The Rossen Reports team went
jewelry shopping on the island of
Cozumel, a popular vacation
destination off the coast of Mexico’s
Yucatan peninsula, bringing along
Karen DeHaas, a certified gemologist
for 41 years. At one shop they found
what the proprietor said was a sapphire ring that would cost $750
in the U.S., but was sold to the Rossen team for $350.
“This is not even real sapphire,” DeHaas said when she
inspected the ring. “It’s actually blue glass.” Another independent
gemologist — Gary Smith, international president of the American
Society of Appraisers — also inspected the item and agreed.
DeHaas said the actual value of the ring was “25 bucks at the
tops. I wouldn’t put it in my fish tank. It’s garbage.”
DeHaas said Rossen Reports overpaid by $325. The store later
apologized and offered a refund.
On another popular vacation island — Key West, Florida —
a Rossen Reports producer purchased a pair of diamond stud
earrings. The seller said the retail price was $4,400, but gave the
Rossen producer a “deal” for $3,200.
“They’re not even the color or clarity they said they were,”
DeHaas said of the purchase. “They’re much worse.” DeHaas and
Smith said that Rossen Reports overpaid by $800. The store
apologized and offered a refund.
At another store in Key West, Rossen Reports purchased a
pair of diamond studs. The seller told them they were getting a
great deal at $1,900.
However, when DeHaas inspected them, she said, “These are
clarity enhanced diamonds. They’re worth less than half what you
paid.”
DeHaas and Smith said that this time Rossen Reports had
overpaid by $1,050. When Rossen Reports reached out to the store,
they offered to have the diamonds sent for an independent
appraisal and said they were willing to refund the money if the
value was lower than what Rossen Reports had paid.
Another thing to keep in mind about shopping for jewelry on
vacation: You may have to pay taxes on it when you return home.
When the Rossen team came back to the U.S. and went through
customs, they had to pay almost $300 in U.S. taxes on their
jewelry purchases.
The stores Rossen Reports patronized said they have many
satisfied customers.
Experts say the best advice is to be a savvy shopper even
when you’re on vacation: Don’t let your guard down just because
you’re in shorts and flip-flops.
Source: NBC Today Show April 2, 2015 Rossen Reports
July/August 2015
Going to the Springfield Mineral Show? Read this!
The Bedrock Guide to Enjoying Your Next
Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show
By Charles Snider
Whether you are attending a gem and mineral show for the
first time that perhaps you found on a gem, mineral, and fossil
show listings site (on www.americangeode.com, for example), or
you are a veteran of gem and minerals shows, this article on shows
will prove to be a valuable resource of tips to make your
experience more efficient and more fun.
First, your best bet is to bring cash. You spare and save the
dealer from having to pay 3-6% in credit card fees when you pay
in cash. Sometimes that savings will earn you a free gift, or
discount toward your second purchase. We sell geodes and gems
ourselves, and can tell you from the experience of running a small
business that cash is simply easier for the dealer or seller to
manage and administer. So bringing cash is a “win-win” for you
as well as for the dealers, whom you will likely see at another
show!
What are the benefits of buying your gems, minerals, and
fossils at a show? The answer is provenance. What does that
mean? That means the dealer or seller knows the origin, travels,
and story behind the mounted gemstone or fossil you are about to
purchase. They can tell you its origin, how they acquired it, how
long they have held it, and other interesting facts. Now does that
make the piece more valuable than one whose only fact you know
is what country it came from? For the serious collector or museum
curator who attends shows, the provenance is everything.
Prepare before the show. Make sure your collection inventory
is up-to-date, print it out and remember to bring it with you. Also,
bring a cloth bag, one of the reusable and recyclable grocery bags
you can pick up at a market. They fold up nicely; you can even
fold up 2-3 of them and carry them in your back pockets.
Remember that you may be walking out, or walking the rest of the
day with 5 to 25 pounds of gems, minerals, and fossils. You need
something in which to carry them, and that something needs to
have handles. Regardless the style of bag, remember to not set it
down!
Other suggestions would be a back-pack, or the kind of
messenger or Pony Express bag you can sling diagonally across
your torso. Do not rely on the bags that a dealer or seller has.
While they would, and do, and should offer you a bag, they will
13
not be able to give each customer a cloth bag with handles and
may not have big bags, and you may want to consolidate your
gem, mineral, and fossil finds to a single bag.
Returning to the reminder to never set down your bag, you are
admiring the gems, you’re talking to other enthusiasts and club
members, you may set down the bag of your gem and mineral
purchases to give a hug or handshake to someone, and
unfortunately that could be all the time it takes for someone to
snatch your bag, purse or backpack. The shows are open to the
public and unfortunately any public event can include some
scoundrels who will take advantage of the crowd and all the ways
for you to lose attention on your belongings. So keep your
belongings secure with you.
Along the lines of taking care of yourself, do you have enough
medication with you if you find yourself at the show longer than
originally expected? If you came aboard a bus with your club to a
show, despite the best laid plans traffic came snarl your ride home.
Prepare in advance in case you stay longer than anticipated by
bringing an extra dosage of medicine should you have a condition
requiring it.
Important: time can work against you, so make it work for
you, which is the premise of this article. Plan your trip to the show
in advance so you get the most out of it. If you rode to the show in
a bus, then you are with a group of club members expecting to
leave the show at a pre-determined time. Invest your time on the
purchases you are considering, invest time in catching up with club
members and making new rockhound friends, and especially if you
arrived with a group on a bus, keep an eye on your watch.
Now while you are at the show, go around the booths one
more time before you step out. (Perhaps I should have mentioned
this earlier, but it would have been a good idea to take notes
regarding which dealers have things you might consider buying,
which booth they are in and for how much, while you have been
walking around!) You know that feeling of angst and frustration
thinking what you should have bought, or could have bought
someone for a birthday, Christmas, or other holiday? Since each
gem, mineral, or fossil is the ultimate one-of-a-kind, get it now,
and be at peace.
Charles Snider is a member of the New York Mineralogical
Club, Nassau Mineral Club, Island Rock Hounds, and cofounder of www.americangeode.com, where he can be reached.
A version of this article appeared in the March 2015 issue of
Rock Bottom Facts, bulletin of Island Rock Hounds, Inc.
14
The Joy of Rockhounding
By Charles Snider
Charles Snider (green tee-shirt) on a Wildacres field trip to Sinkhole Mine
with K.C. Foster of the Florida Mineral Club.
I read an article in the New York Times, and have seen this
story played out commercials for modern day sitcoms. We are
becoming so dependent on our phones, or on our laptops, and the
social media sites that they contain, that we cannot watch a
television program with another person in the room without
engaging an electronic device. The experience of watching TV or
a movie, or reading, or being with someone else is not enough
these days. The story I read talked about the generation upon us
now, being born and taught to utilize a tiny screen at all times,
even while a person, a teacher is standing before them speaking.
According to the article, we crave as many distractions as possible,
and they are not human, nor are they natural.
This premise led me to reminisce about last year’s
rockhounding trips. Leaving my phone in the car felt awkward, but
someone knew where I was going, approximately, if I were to fall
into a hole or something were to happen to me. It’s not like I
needed my phone on me to dial 911 or call someone because I was
in trouble. There were 2 fellow rockhounds with me. I just felt a
little awkward at giving up that “distraction,” but when I did, and
started marching into the woods, listening to my steps, and to
nature, it felt like another world, and it always does when I go
rockhounding.
Rockhounding, or amateur geology as it’s sometimes called,
for me is a great retreat from all the distractions of modern life.
The tools I carry, the provisions I bring, the clothing I wear, while
modern, are not very different in design or purpose than what one
would carry to go rockhounding 50 years ago. Back then, we did
not these personal distractions on us, so rockhounding these days,
turning off your phone, having your phone disable because there’s
no signal, however - you can get off the grid these days,
rockhounding is one way to do it!
I believe we are losing the art of conversation, certainly of
negotiation, and possibly sense of humor with our reliance on
electronic devices. Rockhounding on the other hand requires all
three of those parts of life. Conversation is a natural part of
rockhounding with your crew, negotiation is required at the end of
the day to figure out how to divide up the loot, and laughter and
humor and fun is a common theme throughout a rockhounding trip.
No devices required.
The last time I went with the Long Island club group to the
Herkimer Diamonds claim for instance, there were three of us
lugging a jackhammer in a dolly, as well as, towing all the other
supplies like a trio of pack-mules. We met some lively characters
along the way in their respective claims. There was one gentleman
who goes by the name “Diamond Jim.” As we each anticipated, he
told stories about how he found the largest Herkimer Diamonds
ever and always finds the largest pockets. Then there was s dude
named Montana at another claim. We learned later that he was
living out of his van, and peddling Herkimer Diamonds to fund his
July/August 2015
gas, lodging (the van), meals, and I am not sure what the
bathroom, laundry, or shower situation was, but we ended up
hanging out with him for 30 minutes and helped him mine
Herkimer Diamonds for gas money. Going back to the theme of
this article, did I exchange numbers or anything from my phone
with either gentleman? No I did not. We met along the rockhound
journey, shared some banter and laughs, heard some laughable
quips and tall-tales, and we engaged with each other without
distraction.
So by design, rockhounding is one of the most social activities
in which one can participate, and no phone or distraction can make
it any better. Popular TV shows these days encourage you to watch
for different content on your laptop while you are also watching
the show, and Tweeting and other Social Media is encouraged and
rewarded. Your multi-tasking is purely solo, and does not involve
or include your friends, loved ones or good mates even if they are
in the same room. Compare and contrast that to a rockhounding
trip with your club, loved ones and family, good buddies and
friends, and consider that any distraction on your phone would not
enhance your experience, but take away from it. You need all your
senses ready to lay your eyes on a giant Herkimer Diamond
pocket. You don’t want to be distracted when a large garnet pops
out of Connecticut schist. Walking the dried creek beds in Indiana
seeking a rare geode covered with growth, or concealed
underground, is not enhanced if your eyes were reading the screen
on your phone, like we see commonly on the streets of Manhattan
for instance.
To conclude, for me the Joy of Rockhounding is that it forces
me to put down my phone, to expect no emails from the office, to
be away from Social Media “friends” and among “real friends.”
These days multi-tasking for work and entertainment is
commonplace, and keeps us from cooperating and working
together. Rockhounding demands cooperating and working
together, and demands that we are more human and involved and
engaged with each other.
A version of this article appeared in the March 2015 Rock Bottom
Facts, bulletin of The Island Rock Hounds, Inc.
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Special Bulletin V.129 #9a
Ë
New York City, New York
Ë
Incorporated 1937
Dedicated to the Memory of NYMC Member Dr. Oliver Sacks
August 30, 2015
Dr. Oliver Sacks Dies at 82; Neurologist
and Author Explored the Brain’s Quirks
By Gregory Cowles
New York Times Writer
Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and
acclaimed author who explored some of
the brain’s strangest pathways in
best-selling case histories like “The Man
Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” using
his patients’ disorders as starting points for
eloquent meditations on consciousness and
the human condition, died Sunday at his
home in New York City. He was 82.
The cause was cancer, said Kate
Edgar, his longtime personal assistant.
Dr. Sacks announced in February, in
an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times,
that an earlier melanoma in his eye had
spread to his liver and that he was in the
late stages of terminal cancer.
As a medical doctor and a writer, Dr.
Sacks achieved a level of popular renown
rare among scientists. More than a million
copies of his books are in print in the
United States, his work was adapted for
film and stage, and he received about
10,000 letters a year. (“I invariably reply
to people under 10, over 90 or in prison,”
he once said.)
Dr. Sacks variously described his
books and essays as case histories,
pathographies, clinical tales or
“neurological novels.” His subjects
included Madeleine J., a blind woman who
perceived her hands only as useless
“lumps of dough”; Jimmie G., a submarine
radio operator whose amnesia stranded
him for more than three decades in 1945;
and Dr. P. — the man who mistook his
wife for a hat — whose brain lost the
ability to decipher what his eyes were
seeing.
Describing his patients’ struggles and
sometimes uncanny gifts, Dr. Sacks
helped introduce syndromes like
Tourette’s or Asperger’s to a general
audience. But he illuminated their
characters as much as their conditions; he
humanized and demystified them.
In his emphasis on case histories, Dr.
Sacks modeled himself after a questing
breed of 19th-century physicians, who
well understood how little they and their
peers knew about the workings of the
human animal and who saw medical
science as a vast, largely uncharted
wilderness to be tamed.
“I had always liked to see myself as a
naturalist or explorer,” Dr. Sacks wrote in
“A Leg to Stand On” (1984), about his
own experiences recovering from muscle
surgery. “I had explored many strange,
neuropsychological lands — the furthest
Arctics and Tropics of neurological
disorder.”
His intellectual curiosity took him
even further. On his website, Dr. Sacks
maintained a partial list of topics he had
written about. It included aging, amnesia,
color, deafness, dreams, ferns, Freud,
hallucinations, neural Darwinism,
phantom limbs, photography,
pre-Columbian history, swimming and
twins.
“I am very tenacious, for better or
worse,” he wrote in “A Leg to Stand On.”
“If my attention is engaged, I cannot
disengage it. This may be a great strength,
or weakness. It makes me an investigator.
It makes me an obsessional.”
He was also a man of contradictions:
candid and guarded, gregarious and
solitary, clinical and compassionate,
scientific and poetic, British and almost
American. “In 1961, I declared my
intention to become a United States
citizen, which may have been a genuine
intention, but I never got round to it,” he
told The Guardian in 2005.
Dr. Sacks first won widespread
attention in 1973 for his book
“Awakenings,” about a group of patients
with an atypical form of encephalitis at
Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx.
When Dr. Sacks started his clinical career
there, in 1966, many of the patients had
been catatonic, locked inside themselves
for decades as a result of their “sleeping
sickness.”
Dr. Sacks gave them the drug L-dopa,
which was just beginning to be recognized
as a treatment for similar symptoms in
patients with Parkinson’s, then watched as
they emerged into a world they did not
recognize. Some responded better than
others — both to the drug and to their
changed circumstances — and Dr. Sacks
used his book to explore the differences
and celebrate his patients’ limited rebirth.
“I love to discover potential in people
who aren’t thought to have any,” he told
People magazine in 1986.
Special
Sacks Memorial Issue
Highlights
Memories of Sacks (Nikischer). . . . . 2
Obituary (Continued from p.1).. . . 3-4
My Periodic Table (Sacks).. . . . . . . . 5
Musicophilia Review (Schumate).. . . 6
The 100: Tungsten Minerals. . . . . . . 7
Topics in Gemology: Heavy Metals. . 8
The Genius of Oliver Sacks. . . . . . . . 9
The Native Elements are Restless. . 10
My Own Life (Sacks). . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2
Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club - Special Memorial Issue
Memories of Oliver Sacks
By Mitch Portnoy
For a number of years back, while we
were still meeting at the Museum of Natural
History, I had noticed a quiet, debonair
somewhat elderly man attending our
meetings. One Wednesday, a few hours
before a regular meeting that was to be
taking place (with Vivien Gornitz as the
speaker), I was watching NBC News and –
to my surprise – I saw that VERY man
presenting a mineral crystal, which he
called “a scheelite,” and said it was made
mostly from tungsten and it fluoresced
bright blue under the right type of light.
By Tony Nikischer, President
Excalibur Mineral Corp
In the last ten years, I have written
many obituaries in Mineral News for friends
and colleagues in the field of mineralogy.
My personal connection with them was
always the underlying impetus to put on
paper what they meant to me as well as to
the science or the hobby. Perhaps it was an
attempt to hold on to them just a little
longer, for each loss came as an unpleasant
and unanticipated surprise. Not so with the
passing of Oliver Sacks, as his looming,
final breath was well-documented.
Dr. Sacks was not a mineralogist, but
he was no less a giant in my world. In
February of this year, he announced to the
world in a New York Times Op-Ed piece
that he had terminal cancer. A worldfamous neurologist, author and inspirational
character, Oliver was also a casual collector
of minerals, and hence, my first connection
with him was through minerals. Oliver had
a remarkably broad range of interests
outside of his renowned professional life, all
fed by a seemingly insatiable curiosity.
In his book Uncle Tungsten, he
recounted his early introduction to
chemistry as a child, and he later explained
to me that the niggling curiosity that was to
color his life began to take hold of him as a
young boy. His interests in the natural
world, whether it entailed minerals,
chemistry, ferns or fish, all were fodder for
his remarkable brain. Minerals in particular,
and the periodic table, of course, were
wondrous things to him, as were the
spectroscopes he used to study New York
City street lamps at night to ascertain their
vapor source.
Oliver came to me some years ago at
the New York City Gem & Mineral Show,
seeking to build a collection of elements.
We hit it off immediately, and he would
later visit my warehouse and laboratory in
Peekskill, NY on several occasions to
choose specimens of interest. He would
sometimes present me with signed copies of
his books, and his favorite gift from me, I
suspect, was a fine, blue tie with the
periodic table of elements in the design. I
was always delighted to see it whenever he
chose to wear it to mineral shows or other
functions. I have one like it, and it will
always remind me of Oliver.
He was fascinated with elements,
cations and ion groups and the minerals that
best represented them. His interest in
uranium minerals was short-lived, however.
During one of his visits, he became
enthralled with a particularly attractive
Oliver Sacks in his NYC office
That man, was, of course, Oliver
Sacks! The book about his childhood,
Uncle Tungsten, had just been published
and he was showing the mineral as part of
a televised book overview.
Happily he attended the meeting that
night and I went over to him. “I know who
you are now,” I said. He smiled and then
told me with his mild British accent that he
always makes sure to come to the meetings
when Vivien speaks because she is so
“interesting” and “thorough”.
Thus our friendship began.
I visited his office in Greenwich
Village a number of times over the ensuing
years. We always discussed his most recent
book as well as the next book he was
working on.
He wrote his books long hand on
yellow, legal-sized pads; I offered to give
him word processing lessons and we
debated the relative benefits of each
process. Alas, the lessons never happened.
I will never forget the immense
periodic table decorating a wall in one of
the rooms there or the ingots of metals and
other pure elements displayed everywhere.
There was even a bowl of liquid bromine!
Years ago I wrote a series of limericks
about native elements in his honor which he
told me he liked; I have reproduced them on
page 10 of this issue. I think he would be
pleased to see them again!
August 30, 2015
torbernite specimen from Musonoi, and the
piece went home to Horatio Street with him.
He would occasionally borrow a Geiger
counter from me to demonstrate radioactivity
to colleagues, and I suspect that it was the
Geiger counter that resulted in the only
mineral return I ever experienced with Dr.
Sacks. He apologetically came to me,
explaining that Kate Edgar, his able assistant
for many years, forbid him from having the
torbernite in the house, even though it was
kept under glass. And so, back it came.
The exiled torbernite specimen!
As he progressed in age, Oliver made a
point of obtaining a mineral in which its
primary element’s periodic table number
matched his age. On his 74th birthday, for
example, he sought a good wolframite, an
iron-manganese tungstate, since the periodic
table number for tungsten was 74. When we
last met, he stated that although he had
successfully reached lead (number 82 in the
periodic table), he doubted that he would
make bismuth, number 83 in his beloved
chemical arrangement.
T-Shirt from Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks’ great curiosity and his
love of life were evident in his many
pursuits. The great fame he achieved in his
professional life paled, however, to the
friendships he fostered with others who
shared one of his many passions. I consider
myself fortunate to have known him,
honored to have been his “mineral guru”
when he sought one.
August 30, 2015
Oliver Sacks
Other books included the best-selling
“An Anthropologist on Mars” (1995), about
autistic savants and other patients who
managed to thrive with their disorders;
“The Mind’s Eye” (2010), about the ways
people compensate for brain injuries; and
three books about specific neurological
conditions: “Migraine” (1970), “The Island
of the Colorblind” (1997) and “Seeing
Voices” (1989), a look at language
perception among the deaf. He also wrote
“Oaxaca Journal,” a 2002 travelogue about
a trip to Mexico with the American Fern
Society.
Dr. Sacks began his medical career as
a researcher but gave up early, conceding
that he had neither the temperament nor the
eye-hand coordination for it. “I lost
samples,” he told an interviewer in 2005. “I
broke machines. Finally they said to me:
‘Sacks, you’re a menace. Get out. Go see
patients. They matter less.’ ”
Yet even after he left research for
clinical practice, he retained his scientific
curiosity and his intuition for asking big
questions. Years before it became
fashionable to study the chemical and
neurological foundations of the mind, for
example, Dr. Sacks identified the need for
such a field in “A Leg to Stand On,” where
he termed it “clinical ontology” or
“existential neurology.”
Dr. Sacks linked himself to the Soviet
founder of neuropsychology, A. R. Luria,
whom he considered a mentor. The two
never met, but they maintained a long
correspondence, and in 1977, Dr. Sacks
wrote Dr. Luria’s obituary for The Times of
London.
Dr. Sacks’s accounts of neurological
oddities found a wide popular audience and
were adapted for Hollywood, the theater,
even opera. Robin Williams portrayed a
Sacks-like doctor in the 1990 film version
of “Awakenings,” and the novelist Richard
Powers based a central character on him in
his 2006 book, “The Echo Maker.” The
2011 movie “The Music Never Stopped”
was adapted from “The Last Hippie,” one
of the case studies collected in “An
Anthropologist on Mars.” An opera based
on “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a
Hat,” with music by Michael Nyman and a
libretto by Christopher Rawlence, had its
premiere in London in 1986 and was staged
at Lincoln Center in New York in 1988.
The Independent of London called Dr.
Sacks “the presiding genius of neurological
drama.” Reviewers praised his empathy and
Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Oliver Sacks
his graceful prose. Scientists could be
dismissive, however, complaining that his
clinical tales put too much emphasis on the
tales and not enough on the clinical. A
London neuroscientist, Ray Dolan, told The
Guardian in 2005: “Whether Dr. Sacks has
provided any scientific insights into the
neurological conditions he has written about
in his numerous books is open to question.
I have always felt uncomfortable about this
side of this work, and especially the
tendency for Dr. Sacks to be an ever-present
dramatis persona.”
In an otherwise laudatory review of
3
evolutionary accident piggybacking on
language,” and pointed to its ability to reach
dementia patients as evidence that music
appreciation is hard-wired into the brain.
“I haven’t heard of a human being who
isn’t musical, or who doesn’t respond to
music one way or another,” he told an
audience at Columbia University in 2006. “I
think we are an essentially, profoundly
musical species. And I don’t know whether
— for all I know, language piggybacked on
music.”
Referring to Nietzsche’s claim that
listening to Bizet had made him a better
Actor Robin Williams (left) who played Sacks in the film Awakenings, based on Sacks's
book of the same title. (Courtesy of Oliver Sacks)
“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a philosopher, Dr. Sacks said, “I think Mozart
Hat” in The New York Times Book makes me a better neurologist.”
Review, the neuropsychologist John C.
Oliver Wolf Sacks was born on July 9,
Marshall took issue with what he saw as Dr. 1933, in London, the youngest of four sons
Sacks’s faux-naïve presentation (“He would of Samuel Sacks and the former Muriel Elsie
have us believe that an experienced Landau, who were both doctors. His father,
neurologist could fail to have read anything in Dr. Sacks’s words a “moderately
about many of the standard syndromes”), Orthodox” Jew, read the Bible daily, and Dr.
and called his blend of medicine and Sacks often demonstrated a spiritual impulse
philosophy “insightful, compassionate, in his books. But in “Uncle Tungsten,” his
moving and, on occasion, simply 2001 memoir about his childhood love of
infuriating.”
chemistry, he explained that the inflamed
More damningly, the disability-rights Zionist meetings his parents held before the
activist Tom Shakespeare accused Dr. war helped turn him away from organized
Sacks of exploiting the people he wrote religion.
about, calling him “the man who mistook
In “Uncle Tungsten,” Dr. Sacks
his patients for a literary career.”
described how growing up in a household of
A skilled pianist, Dr. Sacks often wrote polymaths fostered his interest in science.
about the relationship between music and
“The thousand and one questions I asked
the mind, eventually devoting a whole as a child,” he wrote, “were seldom met by
book, “Musicophilia” (2007), to the subject. impatient or peremptory answers, but careful
Dr. Sacks disagreed with the Harvard ones which enthralled me (though they were
psychologist and author Steven Pinker’s often above my head). I was encouraged
view of music as “auditory cheesecake, an from the start to interrogate, to investigate.”
4
When World War II broke out, his
parents sent Oliver and his brother Michael
to a rural boarding school that Dr. Sacks
described as a sadistic travesty, rife with
bullying and cruelty. “The horribleness of
the school,” he wrote in “Uncle Tungsten,”
“was made worse for most of us by the
sense that we had been abandoned by our
families, left to rot in this awful place.”
Four years later, when he returned
home, he immersed himself in the refuge of
his basement chemistry lab and the “eternal
system” of the periodic table.
After receiving his medical degree
from the Queen’s College, Oxford, Dr.
Sacks moved to America in the early 1960s
for an internship at Mount Zion Hospital in
San Francisco, then did his residency at the
University of California, Los Angeles. He
embraced the culture he found in California
— befriending the poet Thom Gunn,
entering weight-lifting competitions and
joining the Hells Angels on motorcycle
trips to the Grand Canyon, adventures he
wrote about in his 2015 memoir, “On the
Move: A Life.”
In that book, he also discussed his
sexual identity for the first time, describing
his adolescent realization that he was gay.
After several early flings, he wrote, he
settled into a period of celibacy that lasted
35 years before he found love late in life.
He is survived by his partner of eight years,
the writer Bill Hayes.
Dr. Sacks moved to New York in 1965
for a fellowship at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in the Bronx, and, a
year later, began the clinical work at Beth
Abraham that led to “Awakenings.” Over
the years, he received many awards,
including honors from the Guggenheim
Foundation, the National Science
Foundation, the American Academy of Arts
and Letters and the Royal College of
Physicians. In 2008, he was named a
Commander of the British Empire.
In 1974, Dr. Sacks tore his left
quadriceps while running from a bull on a
Norwegian mountaintop, an injury he wrote
about in “A Leg to Stand On.” In that book,
he recalled an aunt visiting him in the
hospital and telling him: “You’ve always
been a rover. There are rovers, and there are
settlers, but you’re definitely a rover. You
seem to have one strange adventure after
another. I wonder if you will ever find your
destination.”
A prolific journal-keeper, Dr. Sacks
compiled more than 600 notebooks. He
published his essays in medical journals and
magazines like The New Yorker and The
New York Review of Books as well as
small literary magazines like Antaeus, and
he often revised them to add new
information even after they had already
appeared in book form. “Ah, Oliver!” he
once quoted an exasperated publisher as
saying. “You’d do anything for a footnote!”
For years, Dr. Sacks lived on City
Island in the Bronx, where he liked to take
long swims around it. More recently, he
lived in Greenwich Village. But he
remained ambivalent about being called a
New Yorker.
“I rather like the words ‘resident alien,’
“ he told The Guardian. “It’s how I feel. I’m
a sympathetic, resident, sort of visiting
alien.”
Dr. Sacks preferred to be an alien in
New York rather than in California, he told
The Calgary Herald. “Living there was too
easy and too sweet,” he said. “I needed ugly
and violent, ferocious and challenging. ...
There is a tremendous richness of life here,
Tourette’s visibly present on the streets.”
Dr. Sacks remained active well into his
later years. In 2007, at 74, he severed his
42-year relationship with the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine to accept an
interdisciplinary teaching position at
Columbia. In 2012, he returned to the New
York University School of Medicine as a
professor of neurology. (He had had an
adjunct position there for a couple of years
in the 1990s, working mostly with its
Tourette’s clinic.) And despite the
enormous success of his books, he never
gave up his unglamourous medical practice
— partly, no doubt, because it provided him
with material, but also because he genuinely
loved working with patients.
In 1989, interviewing him for “The
MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” Joanna Simon
asked Dr. Sacks how he would like to be
remembered in 100 years.
“I would like it to be thought that I had
listened carefully to what patients and
others have told me,” he said, “that I’ve
tried to imagine what it was like for them,
and that I tried to convey this.
August 30, 2015
“And, to use a biblical term,” he added,
“bore witness.”
He also bore witness to his own
dwindling life, writing reflective essays even
in his last days. On Aug. 10, his assistant,
Ms. Edgar, who described herself as his
“collaborator, friend, researcher and editor”
as well, wrote in an email: “He is still writing
with great clarity. We are pretty sure he will
go with fountain pen in hand.”
Several days later, a valedictory essay
titled “Sabbath” appeared in The Times. In it,
Dr. Sacks considered the importance of the
Sabbath in human culture and concluded:
“And now, weak, short of breath, my
once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I
find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the
supernatural or spiritual, but on what is
meant by living a good and worthwhile life
— achieving a sense of peace within oneself.
I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath,
the day of rest, the seventh day of the week,
and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as
well, when one can feel that one’s work is
done, and one may, in good conscience,
rest.”
Source: nytimes.com from Aug. 30, 2015
Permission to reprint granted
August 30, 2015
Oliver Sacks: My Periodic Table
By Oliver Sacks
I look forward eagerly, almost greedily, to the weekly arrival
of journals like Nature and Science, and turn at once to articles on
the physical sciences — not, as perhaps I should, to articles on
biology and medicine. It was the physical sciences that provided
my first enchantment as a boy.
In a recent issue of Nature, there was a thrilling article by the
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek on a new way of
calculating the slightly different masses of neutrons and protons.
The new calculation confirms that neutrons are very
slightly heavier than protons — the ratio of their masses
being 939.56563 to 938.27231 — a trivial difference, one
might think, but if it were otherwise the universe as we
know it could never have developed. The ability to
calculate this, Dr. Wilczek wrote, “encourages us to
predict a future in which nuclear physics reaches the
level of precision and versatility that atomic physics has
already achieved” — a revolution that, alas, I will never
see.
Francis Crick was convinced that “the hard problem” —
understanding how the brain gives rise to consciousness — would
be solved by 2030. “You will see it,” he often said to my
neuroscientist friend Ralph, “and you may, too, Oliver, if you live
to my age.” Crick lived to his late 80s, working and thinking about
consciousness till the last. Ralph died prematurely, at age 52, and
now I am terminally ill, at the age of 82. I have to say that I am not
too exercised by “the hard problem” of consciousness — indeed,
I do not see it as a problem at all; but I am sad that I will not see
the new nuclear physics that Dr. Wilczek envisages, nor a
thousand other breakthroughs in the physical and biological
sciences.
A few weeks ago, in the country, far from the lights of the
city, I saw the entire sky “powdered with stars” (in Milton’s
words); such a sky, I imagined, could be seen only on high, dry
plateaus like that of Atacama in Chile (where some of the world’s
most powerful telescopes are). It was this celestial splendor that
suddenly made me realize how little time, how little life, I had left.
My sense of the heavens’ beauty, of eternity, was inseparably
mixed for me with a sense of transience — and death.
I told my friends Kate and Allen, “I would like to see such a
sky again when I am dying.”
“We’ll wheel you outside,” they said.
I have been comforted, since I wrote in February about having
metastatic cancer, by the hundreds of letters I have received, the
expressions of love and appreciation, and the sense that (despite
everything) I may have lived a good and useful life. I remain very
glad and grateful for all this — yet none of it hits me as did that
night sky full of stars.
I have tended since early boyhood to deal with loss — losing
people dear to me — by turning to the nonhuman. When I was sent
away to a boarding school as a child of 6, at the outset of the
Second World War, numbers became my friends; when I returned
to London at 10, the elements and the periodic table became my
companions. Times of stress throughout my life have led me to
turn, or return, to the physical sciences, a world where there is no
life, but also no death.
And now, at this juncture, when death is no longer an abstract
concept, but a presence — an all-too-close, not-to-be-denied
presence — I am again surrounding myself, as I did when I was a
boy, with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity. At one
end of my writing table, I have element 81 in a charming box, sent
5
to me by element-friends in England: It says, “Happy Thallium
Birthday,”a souvenir of my 81st birthday last July; then, a realm
devoted to lead, element 82, for my just celebrated 82nd birthday
earlier this month. Here, too, is a little lead casket, containing
element 90, thorium, crystalline thorium, as beautiful as diamonds,
and, of course, radioactive — hence the lead casket.
At the start of the year, in the weeks after I learned that I had
cancer, I felt pretty well, despite my liver being half-occupied by
metastases. When the cancer in my liver was treated in February
by the injection of tiny beads into the hepatic arteries — a
procedure called embolization — I felt awful for a couple
of weeks but then super well, charged with physical and
mental energy. (The metastases had almost all been
wiped out by the embolization.) I had been given not a
remission, but an intermission, a time to deepen
friendships, to see patients, to write, and to travel back to
my homeland, England. People could scarcely believe at
this time that I had a terminal condition, and I could
easily forget it myself.
This sense of health and energy started to decline as May
moved into June, but I was able to celebrate my 82nd
birthday in style. (Auden used to say that one should always
celebrate one’s birthday, no matter how one felt.) But now, I have
some nausea and loss of appetite; chills in the day, sweats at night;
and, above all, a pervasive tiredness, with sudden exhaustion if I
overdo things. I continue to swim daily, but more slowly now, as
I am beginning to feel a little short of breath. I could deny it
before, but I know I am ill now. A CT scan on July 7 confirmed
that the metastases had not only regrown in my liver but had now
spread beyond it as well.
I started a new sort of treatment — immunotherapy — last
week. It is not without its hazards, but I hope it will give me a few
more good months. But before beginning this, I wanted to have a
little fun: a trip to North Carolina to see the wonderful lemur
research center at Duke University. Lemurs are close to the
ancestral stock from which all primates arose, and I am happy to
think that one of my own ancestors, 50 million years ago, was a
little tree-dwelling creature not so dissimilar to the lemurs of
today. I love their leaping vitality, their inquisitive nature.
Next to the circle of lead on my table is the land of bismuth:
naturally occurring bismuth from Australia; little limousine-shaped
ingots of bismuth from a mine in Bolivia; bismuth slowly cooled
from a melt to form beautiful iridescent crystals terraced like a
Hopi village; and, in a nod to Euclid and the beauty of geometry,
a cylinder and a sphere made of bismuth.
Bismuth is element 83. I do not think I will see my 83rd
birthday, but I feel there is something hopeful, something
encouraging, about having “83" around. Moreover, I have a soft
spot for bismuth, a modest gray metal, often unregarded, ignored,
even by metal lovers. My feeling as a doctor for the mistreated or
marginalized extends into the inorganic world and finds a parallel
in my feeling for bismuth.
I almost certainly will not see my polonium (84th) birthday,
nor would I want any polonium around, with its intense, murderous
radioactivity. But then, at the other end of my table — my periodic
table — I have a beautifully machined piece of beryllium (element
4) to remind me of my childhood, and of how long ago my
soon-to-end life began.
Dr. Oliver Sacks is a member of the NYMC, a professor of neurology at
the New York University School of Medicine, and the author, most
recently, of the memoir “On the Move.” The bismuth ingots, mentioned
above, were obtained by mineral dealer and NYMC member Alfredo
Petrov.
Source: New York Times July 24, 2015
6
Review of Musicophilia
By Anna Schumate
Dr. Oliver Sacks explores fascination
with music, common to the entire human
species in Musicophilia. Everyone loves some
type of music, some of us being quite eclectic
when we chose which recordings to buy or
performances to attend. I have always thought
that, very much like the human visual cortex
can perform superb pattern recognition, better
than computers, our auditory capacity can
organize sounds into patterns as melodies and
rhythms. In fact many composers have
attributed natural sounds to be the inspiration
for melodic or rhythmic motifs. We recognize
patterns in many sounds; one example is the
“dit-dit-dit-dah” in Morse code for the letter
V. It is also the rhythmic pattern of the first
four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
During WWII it signified V for victory in
radio broadcasts.
Dr. Sacks said that this propensity for
music begins in infancy in every culture and probably goes back
to the earliest human beings. Whether music or language
developed first, or even simultaneously, has been debated for
centuries. One thing we do know is that we humans have both a
musical instinct and a language
instinct.
What of the strange incidents
when this musical instinct goes
wrong? In an early chapter, Dr.
Sacks discusses brain worms or ear
worms, a seemingly innocuous
phenomenon that most of us have
experienced, when a “catchy” tune,
with or without words, becomes
“pathological, as when a certain
fragment of music repeats itself
incessantly, sometimes
maddeningly, for days on end.”
Then there are more severe
conditions such as musical hallucinations in which the sufferer
cannot distinguish whether the music is internal or external, real or
imagined. One of Dr. Sacks’ patients, in her 70’s, had suffered
profound hearing loss in both ears. After a course of treatment with
prednisone prescribed by an otolaryngologist, she began to be
awakened at night by horrible, clanging noises. After about an
hour they were replaced with music, short
passages of Christmas carols and popular
tunes repeating ceaselessly and intensely in
her mind.
Tapering off the prednisone and
replacing it with Valium had no effect on
the hallucinations. These intrusive
hallucinations stopped only when she was
intellectually engaged in activities like
conversation or playing bridge. Mercifully,
they did not keep her awake. She thought
she was becoming psychotic. After
examinations, finding her neurologically
and psychiatrically normal Dr. Sacks
August 30, 2015
concluded that she was experiencing “release
hallucinations.” Her deafness caused that
auditory part of her brain, “deprived of its
usual input, had started to generate a
spontaneous activity of its own, and this took
the form of musical hallucinations,” mostly
music remembered from her childhood. The
brain needed to stay active and if it was not
getting its usual stimulation, it created its own
in the form of hallucinations. They tried
several drugs to no effect, hoping the
medications would dampen down the
hallucinations. Eventually she received a
cochlear implant which restored her hearing
but impaired her enjoyment of music. The
implants tend to be somewhat insensitive to
relative pitch and renders undetectable the
tonal intervals that create a melody. Knowing
she was not psychotic, she reconciled herself
to these hallucinations, which she later
described as “a part of her.”
Dr. Sacks described conditions such as
amusia, a condition that has many forms of
either tone or rhythm deafness, receptive or performance amusia.
Music to these sufferers, makes no sense. It is simply a series of
disorganized sounds as if the inherent human ability for pattern
recognition were disabled. Amusia can be congenital but more
often it is acquired, resulting from
illness or brain trauma.
In contrast, there is the case of
the surgeon who was struck by
lightning after calling his mother
from a public phone booth as a
thunder storm was approaching. He
had finished his call and was
standing a foot away from the booth
when the strike came. He
experienced brief cardiac arrest,
received CPR immediately and was
not hospitalized. His cardiologist
examined him and diagnosed the
brief cardiac arrest, saying, with
these things, either you die or you don’t. After a few weeks of
feeling lethargic with mild memory problems, he recovered and
went back to work. But he had developed an ardent craving for
piano music, especially recordings by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Eventually he acquired sheet music of all the pieces he loved and
taught himself to play. He heard music in his head as well and also
set about learning to notate the music his
mind produced, becoming a composer. This
sudden onset musicophilia was all the more
amazing because the doctor had no previous
proclivity or training in music before the
lightning strike.
Musicophilia describes these and many
more intriguing cases in more detail than I
can give in this brief essay. Dr. Sacks’
narrative style is compelling, clear and
accessible, even for readers who are neither
physicians nor musicians. Best of all, his
humanity and compassion shine through on
each page.
August 30, 2015
7
The 100 is a monthly feature of interest to mineral collectors written by Bill Shelton, based upon his many years of experience
as a mineral collector, educator, author, appraiser, philanthropist and dealer. Comments as well as suggestions for new topics
are most welcome. Contact him at [email protected].
Tungsten Minerals
Few elements have alternate monikers but tungsten – “heavy
stone” – may also be found as wolfram or “wolf dirt”. It was
known and detected in wolframite about 250 years ago. Currently,
one can find a few
collectible species with
considerable tungsten in
their chemistry. Oliver
Sacks called Nature’s
Building Blocks by John
Emsley (2001) “A marvel
… sheer delight.”
Excerpted above, readers
find a bit of Emsley’s
chapter on tungsten.
In Ford, 1966 [Dana’s
Textbook of Mineralogy]
we find eleven species in
Appendix B. Wolframite
and scheelite are the two
major species indicated on
the list. It is noteworthy
that currently we would
redefine wolframite as
presented by Ford, in a
different manner. For
example, Back, 2014
[Fleischer’s Glossary of Mineral Species] indicates wolframite is
a mineral group with five species; collectors are most familiar with
ferberite and hubnerite. One may consider these as a solid solution
series from ferberite, the iron-rich member through hubnerite, the
manganese-rich member. Fe –Mn series are very frequently
encountered in nature; this is but one example known.
Ferberite (with Apatite)
from Portugal
Hubnerite (with Quartz)
from Peru
More recent finds perhaps eclipse these older localities in size,
quantity and even quality. Consider, if you will, ferberite from
Portugal and Kazakhstan along with hubnerite from Peru. What
will we think about Chinese, Russian and Pakistani scheelites
found and made available in the last fifty or so years? Bernard and
Hyrsl, 2004 [Minerals and their Localities] mention, in addition to
the localities above, South Dakota, Germany, France, Spain,
Uganda, Rwanda, Peru and Japan. For hubnerite, South Dakota,
France and Montana are among their selections.
Moving to scheelite, a long list can be found with Nevada,
Namibia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Romania,
Austria and Pakistan as well as others. One might properly
conclude that these three species are in fact more available now
than they were fifty years ago. On mindat.org, the number of
localities given for wolframite is 1632 while scheelite has 4266.
The strategic importance of tungsten, particularly in relation to
armor piercing weapons and armament might surprise you. An
interesting historical example – “Why was Nazi Germany short of
Tungsten?” – can be found at:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=163333.
Collectors seeking fine examples of ferberite, hubnerite and
scheelite will probably be pleased to note that I think they are all
reasonably available at most any mineral show. And, most other
tungsten species are generally classified by me as being of minor
importance for a collection.
Historical perspective here might of interest: Sinkankas in
1964 [Mineralogy for Amateurs] suggested “good specimens of
their compounds (molybdenum and tungsten) are relatively
scarce”. Bolivia, Bohemia and Colorado were his choices for the
best examples (in 1964) for wolframite group members. Scheelite
is indicated from Connecticut, Utah, California and Arizona.
Worldwide, we find England, Bohemia, Italy Spain, Japan and
Korea. Illustrated we note a crystal from Mexico.
Scheelite from Pakistan
Sacks autograph on a
cover which celebrates the
200th anniversary of the
discovery of tungsten
Locally, Trumbull, Connecticut has produced scheelite of
some note as well as ferberite after scheelite. Not much else is of
concern to me but the probability of additional localities is likely.
Some years back, I found multiple minor occurrences of scheelite
in and around the famous mine in Trumbull.
8
August 30, 2015
Topics in Gemology – New Fans for Heavy Metal Groups
Topics in Gemology is a monthly column written by Diana Jarrett, GG, RMV, based on gemological questions posed to her
over the years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at dianajarrett.com.
There was a time when deciding on a precious metal for ones’
jewelry meant white or yellow. And that referred to gold. With the
exception being the other white metal or platinum, things were pretty
uncomplicated for both jeweler and consumer.
Today a profusion of exotic metals have seemingly thrown the
marketplace into a race for eclectic wonder. It could be argued that the
earlier fiscal calamity of 2007 and after created the perfect storm for
unconventional metals to penetrate the mainstream. If the original intent
was to deliver cost-saving metals for precious jewelry brands, they still
bear worth today.
Exotics Take the Stage
Many imaginative and unorthodox metals provide more cost effective
solutions than gold for delivering stylish jewelry of course. After all, we’re
talking stainless steel in some cases. But they are also an integral part of
the overall design statement. A jewelry designer’s fantastic imagination
loses all boundaries when utilizing these previously unconsidered metals.
It’s often just the catalyst needed to release a new level of creativity. But
just as importantly, the proliferation of diverse metals resonates with an
untapped market sector-specifically those style-con Millennials who
wouldn’t deign to wear their parent’s traditional accessories.
Artistic Freedom
Designers, suppliers and merchants should all hop onboard this
runaway train. Consumer support for this trend signals a public very much
taking a shine to the once oddball metal choices available now. But what
are the metal choices and how best to articulate them to customers? Some
of the more eccentric metals have roots which had nothing to do with the
jewelry world. Your customers will find their origins fascinating as they
embrace new jewelry metal options.
While traditional consumers may still opt for the more classic gold
and platinum, tastemakers are putting their money on more expansive
possibilities, like these avant-garde choices:
STAINLESS STEEL
As modern as it seems, the same stainless steel used in clean-lined
fresh jewelry has roots in the 19th century. One Harry Brearley of
Sheffield England devised this metal concoction in 1871 to remedy the
problem of corrosive gun barrels. It quickly progressed in utility by
providing a rustproof knife material.
TUNGSTEN
Tungsten is not found in nature as a pure element, but when isolated,
it is discovered to be extremely resistant to corrosion plus it claims the
highest melting point and tensile strength of any metal. One might be
surprised to learn that it’s been around since the18th century and boasts a
rich history of military application. Light bulb filaments are – you guessed
it – tungsten.
TITANIUM
A youngster in the alternate metals game is titanium, which first
came into popularity in the late 1940s. This alloy is one of the strongest
metals by weight, making it ideal for a wide array of practical
applications. It is 45% lighter than steel yet has comparable strength of
steel. It’s called into use wherever strength and light weight is needed.
Think bicycle frames, aircraft and automobile parts. Another derivative of
this fashion direction is black titanium reports, Montreal jeweler Marc
Azran, president of Marc Azran Creations. “It is a unique black, more like
a dark charcoal color which gives a rich and distinct look. We have been
selling these more and more to individuals who are looking for a metal
that is almost impossible to scratch and something new, never before
seen.”
PALLADIUM
Rare and lustrous, palladium is a silvery white metal discovered in
1803. It’s a member of the platinum group of metals. Over half of all
goods made from this metal group go into the manufacture of catalytic
converters. Dentistry, medicine and high technology applications also use
this precious metal. Good news for folks desiring the platinum look;
palladium usually sells for one quarter to one-third the price of platinum,
weighs less than platinum, yet is whiter, making it a shoe-in especially
for earrings. It needs no coating of any kind to maintain its brilliance,
which is routinely done with white gold. Jill Renee, owner of Danforth
Diamond has developed a successful niche pairing green palladium with
Canadian diamonds for a burgeoning eco-conscious market.“I’ve been
using a recycled palladium alloy and it is a beautiful fit with Canadian
diamonds. I consider the pair to be the most eco-friendly jewelry items
available in today’s market.” Renee has been selling palladium rings for
years and experimented to find the strongest alloy for palladium, making
it an excellent alternative to platinum. “It does take some getting used to
working with, and many jewelers have resisted. I advise them to jump
into this market as the consumer wants this option.”
RHODIUM
Highly resistant to corrosion, another platinum group metal rhodium
is so lustrous that it can be used as a reflective substance for mirrors. In
its raw natural state, rhodium is liquid, not solid like platinum. And it is
also more expensive than platinum. Its popularity in the early 20th
century as a plating for sterling silver and other decorative objects drove
the price up.
More Unexpected Entries
Couture designers are experimenting with blackened steel,
blackened and otherwise deep-toned rhodium finishes over sterling and
other metals, plus a curious ceramic. There’s no single thing that serves
as the designer’s muse when it comes to these iconoclasts of the metal
world. Popular metalsmith Sarah Graham says that she was inspired to
use blackened steel after falling in love with a vintage suite of jewelry at
a Northern California jewelry store. The tag read anodized steel. “I was
doing my apprenticeship at the time, and spent the next five years trying
to figure out how to anodize steel to look like it did on that suite. I was
told time and time again you can’t anodize steel, so I finally gave up and
developed my own method of blackening steel.” As one can imagine,
Graham’s first devotees were art jewelry aficionados. “But as soon as I
made my way to the Las Vegas and New York shows, the more
mainstream jewelry stores snapped it up.” Graham’s success she feels,
is a combination of her signature style and attractive price points which
are ideally suited for “the confident, stylish self-purchasing female
market,” she says.
Metal or Not
It’s not actually a metal, but jewelry grade ceramic produced in
several striking colors is gaining ground especially in men’s wedding
bands and timepieces. Initially this ceramic was used for jet engines and
other commercial applications like colorful ceramic kitchen knives. The
material is a micro-crystalline zirconium and extremely hard, on par with
sapphire, and very durable. Key to the sweeping acceptance of these
innovative metals is choice, style, and price. At a time when value
buying is still critical, it’s clear that these metals are evolving as a valid
alternate in fine jewelry collections, not merely a fad. While the jewelry
trade continually adjusts to fluctuations in both precious metals and
diamond prices, these alternative metals widen the options for consumer
while helping the jeweler to shore up margins.
August 30, 2015
9
The Prolific Genius of Oliver Sacks
(1970)
(1973)
(1984)
(1985)
(1989)
(1995)
(1997)
(2001)
(2002)
(2007)
(2010)
(2012)
(2015)
10
The Native Minerals
Are Restless
By Mitchell Portnoy
The Metals
Gold
Gold has been found in veins
Of quartz. And when it rains
The small flakes wash out
And combine. You'll shout
If a nugget is one of your gains.
Lead
I'd be pleased to own native lead
That's hard to find, it is said.
I am not infallible,
Though it's very malleable
But not to be chewed in bed!
Iridium
Iridium is the smoking gun
Since there is usually none.
A meteor with some in the past,
Landed with a huge blast
Which for dinosaurs was no fun.
Iron
Native iron's a rare sight;
Though common in a meteorite.
When in air or Earth’s crust
It fast becomes rust
Or more nicely put: hematite.
Zinc
New Jersey gave us much zinc
So industry grew there I think.
Its ore is zincite
Found with franklinite
And calcite that fluoresces pink.
Tantalum & Osmium
Tantalum has been found free
Also osmium so you see.
They're both very rare
So don't pull your hair
When absent from inventory.
Non-Metals & Semi-Metals
Carbon
Carbon takes on several shapes
We call polymorphs. One gapes
At diamonds, so bright
And graphite, to write
Or to lubricate (no japes).
Silver
Did you know that “silver” has no
rhyme?
That surely must be a crime.
This metal was known from old
As an associate of gold.
And used to be in a dime.
Copper
Copper is not very hard.
And forms crystals, tarnish-scarred.
From Michigan came
great pieces of fame
Often as big as a yard.
August 30, 2015
Mercury
Look at cinnabar, on the top,
There might be a mercury drop.
A silvery globule
So lively and cool?
Don't play with it! Please stop!
Tin
From Cornwall came tin in the past
Although now it's been surpassed
By cassiterite, none finer,
From Bolivia and China.
I wonder how long that will last.
Platinum
I love rings made of platinum
Though very costly and then some.
With a beauty that lingers
They can fit on your fingers
(But be careful not to fatten'em!).
Palladium
You might think palladium's a place
To dance in New York, face to face.
But it's actually a metal
Found with gold, silver, et al.
And is silvery white in this case.
Sulfur
Sulfur crystals often form
Near volcanos as a norm.
The crystals are yellow
with a sulfurous smell. Oh
And fragile. (Not for a dorm.)
Arsenic
Arsenic can have a trace
Of iron or silver in place.
It's found in masses
In Mexican passes
But never with old lace.
Antimony
Antimony? I can barely pronounce.
I have never seen even an ounce.
But nodules are seen
With a metallic sheen.
Spot one? Be sure to pounce!
Bismuth
Specimens of bismuth give us clues,
with their pinkish, silver-white hues.
Crystals are rare. And if you care
It has a medical use.
August 30, 2015
New York Times February 19, 2015
Op-Ed Contributor
My Own Life
Oliver Sacks on Learning He
Has Terminal Cancer
By Oliver Sacks
month ago, I felt that I was in
good health, even robust health.
At 81, I still swim a mile a day.
But my luck has run out — a few weeks
ago I learned that I have multiple
metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it
was discovered that I had a rare tumor
of the eye, an ocular melanoma.
Although the radiation and lasering to
remove the tumor ultimately left me
blind in that eye, only in very rare cases
do such tumors metastasize. I am among
the unlucky 2 percent.
I feel grateful that I have been
granted nine years of good health and
productivity since the original
diagnosis, but now I am face to face
with dying. The cancer occupies a third
of my liver, and though its advance may
be slowed, this particular sort of cancer
cannot be halted.
It is up to me now to choose how to
live out the months that remain to me. I
have to live in the richest, deepest, most
productive way I can. In this I am
encouraged by the words of one of my
favorite philosophers, David Hume,
who, upon learning that he was mortally
ill at age 65, wrote a short
autobiography in a single day in April of
1776. He titled it “My Own Life.”
“I now reckon upon a speedy
dissolution,” he wrote. “I have suffered
very little pain from my disorder; and
w h at is m o re stran ge , h ave,
notwithstanding the great decline of my
person, never suffered a moment’s
abatement of my spirits. I possess the
same ardor as ever in study, and the
same gaiety in company.”
I have been lucky enough to live
past 80, and the 15 years allotted to me
beyond Hume’s three score and five
have been equally rich in work and love.
In that time, I have published five books
and completed an autobiography (rather
longer than Hume’s few pages) to be
published this spring; I have several
other books nearly finished.
A
Hume continued, “I am ... a man of
mild dispositions, of command of
temper, of an open, social, and cheerful
humor, capable of attachment, but little
susceptible of enmity, and of great
moderation in all my passions.”
Here I depart from Hume. While I
have enjoyed loving relationships and
friendships and have no real enmities, I
cannot say (nor would anyone who
knows me say) that I am a man of mild
dispositions. On the contrary, I am a
man of vehement disposition, with
violent enthusiasms, and extreme
immoderation in all my passions.
11
I feel a sudden clear focus and
perspective. There is no time for
anything inessential. I must focus on
myself, my work and my friends. I shall
no longer look at “NewsHour” every
night. I shall no longer pay any attention
to politics or arguments about global
warming.
Oliver Sacks in New York City in 2015
And yet, one line from Hume’s
essay strikes me as especially true: “It is
difficult,” he wrote, “to be more
detached from life than I am at present.”
Over the last few days, I have been
able to see my life as from a great
altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with
a deepening sense of the connection of
all its parts. This does not mean I am
finished with life.
On the contrary, I feel intensely
alive, and I want and hope in the time
that remains to deepen my friendships,
to say farewell to those I love, to write
more, to travel if I have the strength, to
achieve new levels of understanding and
insight.
This will involve audacity, clarity
and plain speaking; trying to straighten
my accounts with the world. But there
will be time, too, for some fun (and
even some silliness, as well).
This is not indifference but
detachment — I still care deeply about
the Middle East, about global warming,
about growing inequality, but these are
no longer my business; they belong to
the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted
young people — even the one who
biopsied and diagnosed my metastases.
I feel the future is in good hands.
I have been increasingly conscious,
for the last 10 years or so, of deaths
among my contemporaries. My
generation is on the way out, and each
death I have felt as an abruption, a
tearing away of part of myself. There
will be no one like us when we are
gone, but then there is no one like
anyone else, ever. When people die,
they cannot be replaced. They leave
holes that cannot be filled, for it is the
fate — the genetic and neural fate — of
every human being to be a unique
individual, to find his own path, to live
his own life, to die his own death.
I cannot pretend I am without fear.
But my predominant feeling is one of
gratitude. I have loved and been loved;
I have been given much and I have
given something in return; I have read
and traveled and thought and written. I
have had an intercourse with the world,
the special intercourse of writers and
readers.
Above all, I have been a sentient
being, a thinking animal, on this
beautiful planet, and that in itself has
been an enormous privilege and
adventure.
Website: www.newyorkmineralogicalclub.org
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
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Special Issue of the Bulletin of the New York Mineralogicl Club
July 9, 1933 (London) – August 30, 2015 (New York City)
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, Nos. 9
September 9th Meeting:
Professor Steve Okulewicz:
“Digging Gold in Alaska”
Subway/Garnet Theme Featured
At 2015 Annual Gala Banquet
By Mitch Portnoy
At this meeting, the first after the
summer, we are pleased to have Professor
Steve Okulewicz describe what it is like to
dig for gold in Alaska.
The mania for Alaskan gold began in
Sitka, Alaska in 1872 and has continued
into the 21st Century.
Alaska has produced more gold than
any other state except Nevada.
Discover how Alaskan gold is
geologically formed and learn how it is
extracted and refined into the shiny yellow
metal that has been sought after
throughout the ages.
Steve is an adjunct professor of
geology at Hofstra University on Long
Island New York and has been teaching
geology for 34 years. He was one of the
founders of the Staten Island Geological
Society back in 1972. He is also a native
Staten Islander.
Steve has been an extremely popular
lecturer at meetings of the NYMC. He has
educated us about plate tectonics,
volcanoes and Iceland, etc. in the past.
September 2015
This year’s banquet, which is taking
place on Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at
the Holiday Inn Midtown, will have a
double theme – “The NYC Subway” and
“Garnet”.
We decided to
have a two-fold
theme this year to
relate both to the
special lecture that
will be given by Dr.
Charles Merguerian
as well as continuing
the recent tradition
of using a gemstone
ands its color(s) for the party’s overall
unifying motif.
It should also be remembered that we
have the “Subway Garnet,” pictured on
this special stamp I created in 2011 above
as well as on the Club’s logo!
In the past, the banquet’s gemstone
themes have included colored diamonds
(2011), tanzanite (2012), jade (2013) and
ruby (2014).
What attracted me to these themes as
the primary party planner are the color
commonalities for garnets and subway
lines – they both come in the full
spectrum of the rainbow!
As a result you can expect to see
colors galore in the:
Room Decorations
Banquet Posters
Food & Drink
Table Decorations
Banquet Gifts
Banquet Game & Prizes
Video Entertainments
Special Note Card Sets
Silent Auction
Other Surprises!
You should also expect the special
lecture by Dr. Merguerian to be equally as
colorful – more details will appear in next
month’s bulletin. But the real question on
everyone’s mind is whether or not
Hammie will appear!
For a few years now I have had the
“banquet” bulletin printed on colored
paper (2012/tanzanite/blue;
2013/jade/green; 2014/ruby/red) in order
to highlight and advertise the event and its
theme. But I will not do this in 2015. First
of all, many of the
members who
received the paper
bulletin by regular
mail said that this
made reading the
issue very difficult.
And the members
who received the
issue digitally via
email rightly
complained that this made it difficult for
them BOTH to read the issue as well as
print it out!
If you want to start learning (or relearning about garnet), don’t miss Vivien
Gornitz’ colorful article in this issue (Part
I of II) about garnet. Next month she will
continue focusing on the mineralogy,
geology and formation of this popular
mineral/gem.
The registration form for this year’s
banquet can be found on page 12 in this
issue. Get it to me as soon as possible – it
helps enormously in the event planning.
See you at the banquet!
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Garnet I. . . . . 3-4
Aqueduct Mineral Deposits. . . . . . . . 5
NYMC Members on Stamps. . . . . 6-7
Internet Smarts?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Earth’s Hum explained. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The 100: Low Temp Minerals. . . . . . 9
Topics in Gemology: Old Cuts.. . . . 10
Banquet Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Banquet Reservation Form. . . . . . 12
How Continents Form. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Become a Geologist!. . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2
By Mitch Portnoy
Exciting News! We Have a Website!
Surely the most important
announcement I have to make here in a long
time is the fact that we now have a real
“official” website!
Thanks to Joseph Krabak of
American Geode for programming this site
so professionally (and patiently) with me.
Keep in mind that the site, though
“live”, is a work in progress – and it will be
for many more months – so don’t get
frustrated if something is incomplete or
does not work at all. Suggestions are
welcome, certainly.
2015 Banquet Plans in the Works
Now that the hot summer is almost
over, we are feverishly planning to make
the 2015 Garnet/Subway Banquet a cool
event. (Get it?) Specially designed post card
invitations have been sent to all Club
members, friends and associates.
At last year’s banquet, one of the game
prizes that had been placed on one of the
tables “went missing”. I finally found a
replacement! If you were the table game
winner at the 2014 banquet and did not get
your prize, please let me know.
September 9, 2015 Meeting
At the next meeting, I hope any of you
that attended the Springfield Show in
August will share with us details about your
experience in going this year. Also at this
meeting you will be able to get Postcard #2
for 2015.
Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version
Electronic Storage
Club Saves Money
Go Green!
Requires
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional
September 2015
Each mineral was truly stunning as well
Club Officers Planning
as
of
intense mineralogical interest. Equally
Meeting Minutes for July 2015
Attendance: Diane Beckman, Vivien
Gornitz, Janice Kowalski, Mark Kucera,
Cheryl Neary, Mitch Portnoy, Richard
Rossi, Roland Scal, Anna Schumate, Sam
Waldman, Robin Wildes
President Mitch Portnoy presided
Location: Upper West Side
Topics Included:
2015 Benefit Auction Review
2015 Open House in Larchmont
2015 Garnet/Subway Banquet
2015 Fall NYC Mineral Show
NYMC Website
2016 Meeting Dates
2016 Lecture Series
2016 January Special Sale
2016 Membership Cards, Post Cards
and Note Cards
2016 NYMC Special Printings
2016 Chinese Auction (January)
2016 Banquet (Opal!)
Club Meeting “Minutes” for the
Annual Open House
as stunning was the balanced, colorful and
artistic way Alla seems to have “curated”
each of the display cases. She is clearly a
person of taste, quality and visual talent.
This was also reflected in the beautiful
ceramics, carvings, paintings, glassware, etc.
displayed throughout the house, but as we
were there for the minerals, I’ll stop!
I also want to mention the amazing food
that Alla provided, with a homemade herring
salad being the highlight for me. (My mouth
is actually still salivating thinking about it!)
Also thanks to the Litvins for introducing me
to a new, tasty brand of ginger ale.
We had a brief “meeting” during the
afternoon with details in my column, left.
Thanks to Alla for such an amazing
party and overwhelming hospitality!
(PS: Who might want to do this in 2016?)
Members in the News

Dr. Oliver Sachs had a touching article
in the August 14, 2015 Opinion section
of the New York Times entitled
Sabbath.
Attendance: 25
Location: Alla Priceman, Larchmont, NY
Date: Sunday, August 16, 2015, Noon
As has been the case with this annual
summer party, the 2015 NYMC Open
House was a memorable event!
Alla Priceman opened up her lovely
house so we could see her SPLENDID
mineral collection and at the same time put
out a lavish selection of food and drink that
I will remember for MANY years.
About half of the attendees drove to her (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opi
residence in Larchmont, NY while the other nion/sunday/oliver-sacks-sabbath.html)
half (including me) took Metro North to get In September: Light Game #5
there. This could not have been easier as
(About Metallic Luster)
she lives only a short walk from the station.
She happily had the house at a
comfortable temperature for the group as
the external temperature was about 95º F. (It
is summer here, after all, in NYC!)
The part of her collection on display
could be seen in two well-lit “professional
displays”, one in the living room and the
other in the dining room. A third flat display
was also in the dining room. (Of course,
like most of us, this was only a fraction of
her entire collection, the rest in safe
storage.)
Her mineral treasures on display all
Banquet Reservation Tie!
have a small number on them. Next to each
Congratulations to Gail Brett Levine
display Alla had printed out her inventory
and Vesta Sue Rhodes whose early
so we could find out what the mineral was.
reservations for the 2015 Banquet
It was, however, fun to challenge ourselves
arrived on the same day in late June!
and try to identify them before looking at
the informative roster.
September 2015
3
Part I – Garnet: a Ball of Vibrant Colors
Although common in nature, garnet has been valued since
ancient times as a gem, in industry, and more recently as a
“tectonic tape recorder”—a role it shares with several other gem
minerals, such as tourmaline, diamond, and zircon. Garnets
occur in a wide variety of geologic environments, ranging from
the Earth’s mantle to igneous and metamorphic rocks, and
scattered with other heavy minerals in beach sands. Its
ubiquitous occurrences make it an “uncommonly useful”
mineral.
Garnet: The Mineral
Garnets comprise a group of 32 distinct mineral species, of
which the six most common are listed in table 1. The common
members of the garnet group are subdivided into the pyralspite
garnets—pyrope, almandine, and spessartine, and the
ugrandites—uvarovite, grossular, and andradite. The former
sub-group lacks Ca in its chemical formula, the latter all contain
Ca. The garnet crystal structure consists of isolated SiO 4
tetrahedra held together by interstitial positively charged ions
(charged atoms). The general formula for garnet is A 3B 2(SiO 4) 3,
in which the A and B sites are surrounded by 8 and 6 oxygen
atoms, respectively1 . Occupants of the A sites include Mg2+,
Fe2+ , Mn2+ , Ca2+ , whereas B sites are populated by Al3+, Fe3+,
Cr3+ , V3+ , Mn3+ , and Ti4+ . In nature, ions of similar size and
charge often substitute for each other in the crystal lattice. This
leads to a wide spread of chemical compositions (and physical
properties) among the idealized garnet “end-members” shown in
Table 1. Thus, any particular garnet specimen may exhibit a
complex chemistry that records the turbulent geological history
it has experienced (more of which in Part II).
Pyrope, Thailand
Rare Blue Spessartine-Pyrope,
Madagascar
The garnet group belongs to the isometric (cubic) crystal
system. The compact, tight internal atomic structure leads to the
high densities, refractive indices, and relatively high hardness
characteristic of this mineral group. This atomic arrangement
also creates a high degree of internal symmetry manifested
macroscopically by the typically equal-sided garnet crystal
forms, such as the dodecahedron (12 faces), trapezohedron (24
1
faces) and hexoctahedron (48 faces), with multiple combinations
of these. Because of the toughness, hardness, and fairly high
density, garnet weathers readily into rounded reddish grains. In
olden days, these were known as granatus, after the red seeds of
a pomegranate, from which the name “garnet” derives. Because
of the fiery red color of pyrope, the gem in ancient times was
also called carbuncle (after the Latin for “little charcoal”) and
anthrax (Gr, charcoal).
A Rainbow of Colors
Thanks to nature’s sloppiness in growing crystals, the
garnets come in myriad colors of the rainbow, ranging from the
familiar red and brownish-red to pink, orange, yellow, green,
black, and even blue. Garnets acquire their diverse colors from
the various metal atoms within the crystal structure. Red and
reddish-brown hues derive from ferrous (Fe2+) and ferric (Fe3+)
iron, orange from Mn2+, pink (Mn3+), and green (Cr, V).
Pyrope garnets owe their deep red hues to the increasing
substitution of Fe2+ for Mg2+ in the A site. A trace of Cr3+
replacing Al3+ in the B site imparts a pinkish-purple tint. With
growing Cr content, pyrope becomes more “fiery-eyed”, as in
the finest Bohemian garnets. Rhodolite lies roughly half-way
along the pyrope-almandine solid solution series and grows
increasingly purple with additions of Cr3+. Malaya garnet,
belonging to the pyrope-spessartine series, is pinkish to reddishyellowish orange. Its color is relates to both Fe2+ and Mn2+ in the
A site.
Almandine’s red-brown color stems from replacements of
Al3+ by Fe3+ and Ti4+. Andradite, usually dull shades of yellow,
brown, green, and black turns a vivid emerald green as Cr3+
substitutes for Fe3+ in the B site, becoming the highly valued
demantoid garnet. The presence of Fe3+ accounts for the
unusually high refractive index of andradite. Occasionally
colorless, grossular usually appears some shade of orange, to
orange-brown and green. The green tsavorite, discovered in
Tanzania in association with tanzanite, contains both V and Cr.
Bright green uvarovite, usually found as tiny drusy crystals,
contains Cr as part of its formula. Some andradite, or grossularandradite garnets display a rainbow-like iridescence. These
“rainbow garnets” owe their striking colors to a thin, layered
structure, which produces an interference or diffraction effect.
The 8-fold site forms a distorted cube; the 6-fold site forms an
octahedron.
Spessartine, Loliondo, Tanzania
Demantoid, Iran
Inside the world of garnets
Gem garnets host a varied assortment of inclusions that
reflect the multiple geologic environments in which they formed.
Almandine most commonly occurs in metamorphic rocks, such
4
as schists and gneisses. Typical inclusions include biotite, rutile,
zircon and apatite. Intersecting networks of thin, needle-like
rutile inclusions in almandine produce a star effect. However,
unlike the 6-rayed sapphire or ruby stars, almandine stars may
show 4 or 6 rays, depending on the orientation of the needles
with respect to the crystal symmetry axes and how the stone is
cut.
4-Star Almandine, India
September 2015
By contrast, garnets of eclogitic origin consist of yellowish
to bright orange and reddish-orange almandine-pyrope.
Demantoid, the gemmy green variety of andradite, displays hairlike radiating inclusions of chrysotile or tremolite-actinolite.
These are characteristic of Russian demantoid, but are absent in
crystals from other localities. Spessartine occurs mainly in
granitic pegmatites. Unlike the other garnets, it often contains 2and 3-phase inclusions.
Part II takes a closer look at how and where garnets form
and the important keys they hold in unraveling the Earth’s
lengthy, complex history.
Almandine, Ötztal, Austria
Inclusions in pyrope point to its origin in the Earth’s upper
mantle, where it forms a significant constituent of peridotites and
kimberlites. Typical pyrope inclusions include chromite,
diopside, olivine, and rutile. Cr-pyrope may occur as ruby-red
inclusions in diamond—offering clear proof of the diamond’s
periditotic origin.
A purple pyrope garnet, an indicator of garnet harzburgite, in a brownish diamond
octahedron from the Udachnaya pipe, Sakha Republic, Russia (about 0.8 mm across).
Uvarovite, Urals, Russia
Grossular, Jeffrey Mine, Canada
Further Reading
Baxter, E. F., Caddick, M. J., and Ague, 2013. Garnet: Common
mineral, uncommonly useful. Elements 9:415-419.
Galoisy, L., 2013. Garnets: from stone to star. Elements 9:453-456.
Gilg, H.A. et al., eds., 2008. Garnet: Great Balls of Fire. East
Hampton, CT: Lithographie, LLC.
Newman, R., 2011. Exotic Gems, vol. 2, Chaps. 11-16. Los
Angeles: International Jewelry Publications.
Table 1. The Garnet Group
Species
Chemical Formula
Mohs Hardness
Density
Refractive Index
Pyrope
Mg3Al2(SiO4)3
7-71/2
3.58
1.714
Almandine
Fe 3Al 2(SiO 4) 3
7-71/2
4.32
1.830
Spessartine
Mn 3Al2(SiO 4)3
7-71/2
4.19
1.800
Grossular
Ca3Al2(SiO 4)3
61/2-7
3.59
1.734
Andradite
Ca3Fe2(SiO 4)3
61/2-7
3.86
1.887
Pyralspites
Ugrandites
Uvarovite
Ca3Cr4(SiO 4)3
61/2-71/2
3.82
1.865
Adapted from P.W. Pohwat, 2008. The Garnet Group, In: Gilg, H.A. et al., eds., Garnet: Great Balls of Fire. East Hampton, CT:
Lithographie, LLC, p. 4-7.
September 2015
Ancient Roman Aqueduct Mineral Deposits
Could Spill Climate Secrets
Thick layers of mineral deposits that coat the aqueducts could
provide a vast pool of information about climate during the Roman
Empire.
By JoAnna Wendel
5
nearly 40% of the 1400 known major aqueducts from Roman times
are lined with sinter, according to Passchier and colleagues.
Extracting Climate Signatures
Similar to rings of growth found within cave stalactites and
stalagmites, layers of calcium carbonate in aqueducts roughly
follow annual seasonal cycles. These tend to manifest as
alternating dark and light stripes that each keep a chemical record
of the environment in which it was formed, said Gül Sürmelihindi,
Many ancient Roman aqueducts contain layers of carbonate minerals that
store information about the paleoclimate of the Roman Empire.
For hundreds of years, water that rushed through Roman
aqueducts left behind thick layers of sediment caked to the
channels’ walls. These sediments—mostly calcium
carbonate—may contain chemical records of the region’s climate,
similar to the stalactites and stalagmites that scientists study in
caves.
“What we hope to do is to obtain information about
paleoenvironmental conditions during Roman times and see if it’s
different from nowadays,” Cees Passchier, a structural geologist at
the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and leader
of a research project investigating the layers of sediment, told Eos.
Studying these ancient sediments “is a brilliant idea,” said Amy
Frappier, an assistant professor in paleoclimatology at Skidmore
College. Because aqueducts, one of the greatest engineering feats
of the Roman Empire, were so widespread—stitching across
Europe and northern Africa—they could offer a unique look at
how climate changed on all sides of the Mediterranean from
approximately 31 BCE to 476 CE.
“Those aqueducts have been around for thousands of years,”
Frappier said. They “should have been recording all sorts of
environmental changes that were happening.”
Depositing Minerals
Many large and reliable Roman aqueducts were sourced from
limestone cave springs. Waters deep within these springs are rich
in dissolved calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide, thanks to
material dissolving from cave walls and the closed environment of
the cave system, which prevents carbon dioxide from escaping.
When the water emptied into an aqueduct from a spring high
in the hills, it equilibrated with the open air, releasing carbon
dioxide, which lowered the water’s acidity. The lower acidity
caused crystals of calcium carbonate to rain out along the
aqueduct. These deposits of calcium carbonate are called sinter.
In the same way that hard water residue cakes the insides of
today’s pipes, groundwater rushing through Roman aqueducts over
hundreds of years deposited layers upon layers of sinter. In fact,
Two samples of sinter from Roman aqueducts, showing distinct banded
layers. These layers typically represent seasonal cycles. Credit: Cees
Passchier
a postdoctoral researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University.
To study these season cycles, Sürmelihindi turned to
geochemical analysis. She looked at the abundance of an isotope
of oxygen—oxygen-18 (18O )—within the layers. Because 18O has
two more neutrons than the more common 16O, it is slightly heavier
and will be more likely to precipitate out of the rushing water to
form sinter.
Because calcium carbonate can more readily stay dissolved in
colder water, any sinter that forms during the chill of winter will
contain higher concentrations of 18O because heavy oxygen will be
the first oxygen isotope to precipitate out of solution, Sürmelihindi
said.
In many of the darker-colored stripes, Sürmelihindi found a
higher abundance of the heavy oxygen isotope, which meant that
these dark stripes were formed during the colder parts of the year.
In contrast, the lighter-colored stripes tended to have less of the
heavy oxygen isotope, which told Sürmelihindi that these layers
were deposited in a warmer environment.
However, other factors also may create the banding. “These
distinct layers can mean many things, such as a drought period,
very wet period, or even human activity like a cleaning process of
6
the subject aqueduct,” Sürmelihindi said. Another factor adding to
the dark color of these stripes could be the presence of biological
material, she noted.
Unlike stalactites and stalagmites, however, the layers of
carbonate mineral formed in aqueducts provide a more highly
resolved look into the past because of their thickness, Passchier
said. Whereas mineral layers in cave formations can be less than
a millimeter thick, the layers on aqueducts can be a centimeter
thick.
In fact, some sequences of sinter coating the aqueducts can be
about a meter thick, representing hundreds of years of deposition,
Passchier noted. The more material there is for scientists to
analyze, the better picture they can get of the depositional
environment.
Climate and Society
From these chemical signatures, it should be possible to study
how climate changes affected ancient societies, said Frappier, who
has used cave deposits to study climate changes faced by the
ancient Mayan empire.
Scientists have found that human activity has been responsible
for air pollution as far back as the Roman Empire, so “these
aqueducts could possibly be picking up signatures from regional
air pollution, which would be interesting to look at,” Frappier said.
Dating the Past
However, before they can piece together a climatic history of
the region, Passchier and Sürmelihindi must first be able to
accurately date each layer. Although the relative ages of the layers
are apparent, the exact age can be gleaned only from radioactive
dating and comparing those relative ages to known, finely detailed
climate records sourced from tree rings. This comparison has the
potential to resolve the age of each layer to within 5 years, said
Passchier.
The better scientists can understand the environmental
changes that occurred during historical periods such as the rise and
fall of the Roman Empire, “the better we can learn about the
cultural context and how people responded to changes,” Frappier
said.
Citation: Wendel, J. (2015), Ancient Roman aqueducts could spill
climate secrets, Eos, 96, doi:10.1029/2015EO026629. Published
on 19 March 2015.
NYMC Members on Postage Stamps
By Mitch Portnoy
For a few months now, I have been working on a project to create
a special publication for the NYMC on the subject of minerals and
gems on worldwide postage stamps. While doing the research for
it, I was surprised to see how many historic members of the Club
have appeared on related stamps or are referenced in some other
way. I thought I would share these discoveries with you.
September 2015
was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only
woman to win twice, the only person to win twice in multiple
sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel
Prizes. When she visited NYC to great acclaim in 1921, the
NYMC conferred upon her a lifetime honorary membership. The
minerals sklowdowskite, cuprosklowdowskite (pictured on stamp,
top right) and the elements curium are named after her.
William Niven (1850 – 1937)
William Niven was a mineralogist noted for his discovery of the
minerals yttrialite, thorogummite, aguilarite and nivenite (named
after him). Nivenite is a REE-bearing variety of uraninite (pictures
on stamp, right) where a presence of (Y, Ce, etc.) 2O 3 extends to at
least 10%. Niven was a founding member of the New York
Mineralogical Club in 1886. Note: The rhodochrosite pictured on
the stamp with him might be attractive, but it has nothing to do
with Niven as a mineralogist.
George Frederick Kunz (1856 – 1937)
George Kunz was born in New York City, USA, and began an
interest in minerals at a very young age. He taught himself
mineralogy from books and field research. This expertise landed
him a job with Tiffany & Co., and his knowledge and enthusiasm
propelled him into a vice presidency by the time he was 23. He
gained much fame for identifying a new pinkish gem variety of the
mineral spodumene which was named kunzite (pictured on stamp,
right) in his honor. Kunz was a founding member of the New York
Mineralogical Club in 1886. Note: The legrandite pictured on the
stamp with him might be attractive, but it has nothing whatsoever
to do with Kunz as a mineralogist or gemologist. Perhaps an image
of kunzite would have been preferential?
Charles Palache (1869 – 1954)
Marie Sklodowska-Curie (1867 –1934)
Marie Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and
chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She
Charles Palache was one of the most eminent crystallographers and
mineralogists of the world, he lived in a period of revolutionary
developments in mineralogical science. Palache encouraged the
September 2015
efforts of the amateur mineralogists, and was voted an Honorary
Member of . . . the New York Mineralogical Society (sic).
Palacheite was named in 1903 in his honor by Arthur Starr Eakle.
Again, the minerals shown on the two Congo stamps illustrated
above have nothing directly to do with Palache.
7
became an important part of its mineral and gem collection. He
was a member of the NYMC. Both the Roebling Medal (for
mineralogy) and roeblingite, a rare silicate, were named in his
honor.
Dr. Oliver Sacks (b. 1933)
William Henry Bragg (1862 – 1842) &
William Lawrence Bragg (1890 – 1971)
Sir William Henry Bragg shared a Nobel Prize with his son
William Lawrence Bragg – the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics: “for
their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of
X-rays”. The mineral braggite (pictured right) is named them.
Both Braggs were made honorary members of the Club in the early
Twentieth Century.
James Dwight Dana (1813 – 1895)
James Dwight Dana was an American geologist, mineralogist,
volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of
mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure
of continents and oceans around the world. Dana's best known
books were his System of Mineralogy (1837), Manual of
Mineralogy (1848), and his Manual of Geology (1863). His son,
Edward Salisbury Dana (1849–1935) was also a distinguished
mineralogist and in 1934 the New York Mineralogical Club made
him an honorary life member. Note: The barite on the stamp has no
professional relation to J.D. Dana. In addition, the mineral danaite
(right image above), a Co-bearing variety of arsenopyrite, is named
after James Freeman Dana, who does not seem to be related to the
mineralogist depicted on the Comoro postage stamp.
Washington Augustus Roebling (1837 – 1926)
(son of John [Johann] Augustus Roebling)
Washington Augustus Roebling was an American civil engineer
best known for his work on the Brooklyn Bridge, which was
initially designed by his father John (Johann) A. Roebling.
Roebling's most passionate hobby was collecting rocks and
minerals. His collection of over 16,000 specimens was donated by
his son, John A. Roebling, II, to the Smithsonian Institution and
Although member Dr. Oliver Sacks is not specifically pictured on
a postage stamp, I did find this autographed (see left image on the
lower right) stamped card which depicts a wolframite and quartz
specimen from China. The card owner asked Sacks, the author of
the book, Uncle Tungsten, to sign it for obvious reasons!
J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967)
Born in New York City in 1904, Robert Oppenheimer began
collecting minerals at the age of five when his grandfather
presented him with a “starter” mineral collection. In 1920, Dr.
George F. Kunz was president of the New York Mineralogical
Club and the teen-age Robert Oppenheimer was proposed for
membership. He had joined the famous society as an honorary
member at age eleven and one year later he made his scientific
debut delivering a paper on minerals at a club meeting to the
amazement of the members. Much of his collection was later given
to Linus Pauling. The small picture at the right shows
Oppenheimer at the 1961 (75th Anniversary) banquet of the NYMC
at which he received a lifetime achievement award.
References
Archives of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Various Internet websites but primarily:
(1) Wikipedia
(2) http://mineralstamps.rbnet.net/
(3) http://www.geostamps.eu/index.html
(4) www.mindat.org
Minerals Named After Members of the New York
Mineralogical Club by K. Einar Whalen, Bulletin of the New
York Mineralogical Club, 1959.
About half of the images used (all in the public domain for
educational purposes) were found on the Internet; the other half
are scans of actual postage stamps in the collection of the author.
8
The Internet Makes Us Think We're Getting
Smarter (Spoiler: We’re Not)
By Carolyn Gregoire
September 2015
Good thing most of us carry around mini computers in our
pockets all day, so Google is never much farther than a hand
movement away. Sounds like we’re going to need it.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com April 1, 2015
The Earth Has an Eerie Hum, and Now We
Know Why
Google puts a nearly infinite amount of knowledge at our
fingertips, but a new study says that the search engine isn’t
making us any smarter.
Internet searches give people the illusion of personal
knowledge even when they haven’t actually gained any,
according to research published this week in the Journal of
Experimental Psychology.
“Unlike looking something up in a book or calling up a
friend for the answer to a question, searching the Internet is
nearly effortless,” Matthew Fisher, a doctoral candidate in
psychology at Yale University and the study’s lead author, told
The Huffington Post in an email. “The Internet is always
available and gives instant answers, making people less aware of
just how reliant they are on it.”
In a series of experiments, participants searched for
information on the Internet, such as the answer to the question
“How does a zipper work?” They then answered questions about
their perceptions of the knowledge they had gained.
The findings revealed that people who had searched for
information online believed themselves to be more
knowledgeable than a control group about topics that were
completely unrelated to what they had just Googled. After a
brief Internet search, the participants also perceived their brains
to be more active than the control group, who didn’t use the
Internet. What’s more, the participants had an inflated sense of
personal knowledge and brain activity even when they couldn’t
find the information they were looking for.
The Internet blurs the line between what we know and what
we think we know, the researchers concluded.
According to the study, people tend to confuse their own
knowledge with that of the Internet, which has become a sort of
external hard drive for the brain, holding much of the important
information and memories that we rely on.
“People fail to realize how much of their knowledge they
have outsourced to the Internet, making it harder for them to
accurately assess their ‘unplugged’ knowledge,” Fisher said.
Reading information online, after all, is not the same thing
as understanding that information and holding it in one’s
memory, although most people don’t seem to make this
distinction.
“People end up thinking that the information stored online
is information they know themselves,” Fisher said. “A
consequence of this could be that people are poor at recognizing
the gaps in their own personal knowledge. In cases where
someone wants to assess how much they know internally,
without any outside help, their reliance on the Internet will make
it difficult for them to do so.”
Scientists have long known that Earth produces an eerie
low-frequency hum that's inaudible to humans but detectable
with seismic instruments. But as for what's causing this
“microseismic” activity, scientists have never been sure.
Until now.
A new study published online Feb. 10, 2015 in the journal
Geophysical Research Letters indicates that the hum is largely
due to ocean waves that cause our planet to vibrate subtly – or
“ring,” as the researchers put it.
“We have made a big step in explaining this,” Dr. Fabrice
Ardhuin, a senior research scientist at the National Center for
Scientific Research in Brest, France and the study's lead author,
said in a written statement. “Now we know where this ringing
comes from and the next question is: what can we do with it.”
Catching the culprit. With the help of computer models of
the ocean, winds, and seafloor, the scientists were able to
pinpoint the exact kind of ocean waves that cause the hum and
how, Live Science reported.
The researchers found that collisions between ocean waves
generate some seismic activity, but it was mostly the movement
and pressure of giant, slow-moving ocean waves that extend all
the way down to the seafloor that cause the Earth to hum.
The graphic on the left shows the computed height of giant waves that can reach the
seafloor. The picture on the right shows these types of waves during a storm at a
beach south of Bordeaux, France. The pressure of these long ocean waves on the
seafloor generates seismic waves that cause the Earth to oscillate, scientists say.
How the hum can help. The microseismic activity caused by
the giant ocean waves penetrates deep into Earth’s mantle – and
possibly to its core. That suggests that by recording it, scientists
may be able to gain a more detailed picture of our planet's
interior, according to the researchers.
What would the hum sound like if it were at a higher
frequency – within the range of human hearing?
“If you played it at 10,000 times the speed you could hear
'white noise' like an old TV set between channels,” Ardhuin told
The Huffington Post in an email.
Hmm. Maybe it’s a good thing we can’t hear the hum.
Source: Huffington Post Science from April 16, 2015
September 2015
9
Low Temperature Minerals
This month, we will be discussing three common low
temperature (of formation) minerals that are characteristic of low
temperature deposits. They may be found in rocks that suggest
high temperatures. For example, opal may be present in pegmatites
– but it forms late in the sequence and is still considered as a low
temperature mineral. Orpiment and realgar will be found as late
stage deposits in rhyolite, etc where the rocks suggest a high
temperature would be appropriate. Expect the following species to
occasionally associate with these three: stibnite, arsenic, calcite,
barite, gypsum, and chalcedony. Also, realgar and orpiment often
occur together; in fact realgar may alter to orpiment. Crystals do
not exist for opal (it is amorphous); orpiment is said to form
crystals to 3 cm in one reference and 60 cm in another with realgar
approaching 8cm in both. The curious numbers for orpiment are
beyond me – I can’t confirm the large sizes given; my experience
suggests 3 cm is more likely.
Sinkankas (Mineralogy for Amateurs) lists low
pressure/temperature – upper vein portions minerals. They
include antimony, arsenic, barite, calcite, cinnabar, fluorite,
galena, opal, orpiment, realgar, stibnite and zeolites; these are
some of the ones noted. I selected lower temperature minerals
mainly.
Regarding gems, opal is very significant and popular as it has
been known for a long time. Arem reported many varieties (fire,
precious, hyalophane) and noted stones such as the Roebling Opal
of 2,585 carats from Nevada and housed at the Smithsonian. He
states that opals over 40 carats are rarities. Many look-alikes and
treatments are known; HENCE BUY WITH CAUTION. Realgar
is known to three carats – maybe a larger stone can be cut from
recent Chinese material. Stones will be soft and might deteriorate
like specimens are noted to do. It might be one of the worst
choices for a collector in terms of a gem collection.
The Roebling Opal is an extraordinary 2,585-carat piece of opal rough from Virgin
Valley, Nevada.
Fluorescence seems to exist for realgar – Romania has pieces
that are yellow under LW and Russian reports claim a red
fluorescence; both are unconfirmed in my opinion. Opal, by
contrast, may exhibit white, blue, yellow or green fluorescence.
We also note phosphorescence in selected examples. Green is very
common and attributed to uranium salts. A lot of common opal
from the United States will show SW and LW fluorescence with
some showing phosphorescence as well. No reports are noted for
orpiment.
The best specimens, in my eyes, are opalized fossil materials
such as wood from Nevada and mollusks from Australia. Another
nice cabinet showing would be a bright colored boulder opal (also
Australia). I have an old classic hyalite variety from Bohemia that
I like very much. For realgar, a few places have been noted as
good producers for specimens. I like the relatively new pieces from
China as well as any others. Nevada, Washington, Utah and
California all have been the source of pieces of note. Elsewhere,
Romania, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary are all possible –
these will generally be hard to find for sale I believe. Orpiment is
infrequently noted but there are Russian pieces as crystal groups
and large cleavages that will add a nice color splash to an exhibit.
Peru, Hungary, Greece and Turkey were once possible but rarely
available today. In the United States, Utah and Nevada may
produce an occasional piece; some are recycled from older
collections. One find recently is the exception to this idea.
It seems to be a widespread belief that realgar is unstable.
Perhaps this is correct; sources suggest exposure to light may lead
to the breakdown of realgar. The end product may be orpiment but
I’m not convinced this is completely true. So, what should a
potential owner do? Be conservative and select only sharply
formed crystals with a nice, uniform color. I’d try to avoid bruising
as well. Store them in a dry, dark place and just assume they may
be inclined to deteriorate. I would be disinclined to buy matrix
pieces with other species that may interact unfavorably –
especially sulfides that may be a problem anyway. Marcasite is but
one example. Finally, for orpiment, you can find yellow, brownishyellow and and bright nearly golden colored samples. So, go get a
few new species to improve the appearance of your personal
collection. I don’t mention micromounts much but I have seen
wonderful realgars in this size range. Mindat.org says there are
2,997 localities for opal, 450 for orpiment and 619 for realgar.
Realgar from the Royal Reward Mine,
Green River Gorge, Franklin, King
County, Washington.
Orpiment (and Getchellite) from the
Getchell Mine, Adam Peak, Potosi
District, Humboldt County, Nevada.
10
September 2015
Topics in Gemology
The Charm of Old Cut Diamonds
Old European, Old Miners, Rose Cuts and more . . .
Collectors are drawn to vintage and estate jewelry but usually
need help understanding the old cut diamonds in their pieces. The
green and recycle preferences of a younger jewelry consumer sees
buying estate jewelry as a more responsible way to collect. Yet the
older diamond cuts often appear strange to a novice.
Jim Fiebig, sales manager at Joseph’s Jewelers, West Des
Moines, IA has a distinct vantage point for viewing these old
charmers. Family owned Joseph’s Jewelers has been in business
since 1871. What we call old cuts today were the latest diamonds
when the store first opened. “We are five years older than Custer’s
Last Stand,” he reminds.
So now consumers seem quite onboard with keeping the
integrity and charm inherent with these antique sparklers. That
shift in preference alters the conversation at the sales counter.
They may not know all the names of earlier diamond cuts but they
like them just the same. “They don’t understand the difference
between Old Mine vs. European cuts but they have requested
Rose Cut diamonds before.” The bridal sector is ideal for old
stones because engagement rings can become even more
sentimental by including family diamonds. “Many new brides
come in with grandma’s 1920-1930's platinum engagement rings
asking us to restore them,” Fiebig says. But the decision is made
on a case by case basis. “While this is sometimes possible,” he
explains, “I remind customers that the diamond is the soul of the
ring. We can never add enough metal to make it wearable daily
for the next 25 years.” When restoring an old mounting is not
possible, he suggests new vintage style mountings. “Period
specific diamonds can find proper homes in newly produced
styles.”
To the uneducated, old diamonds certainly appear
confounding. “They used to come in and ask about ‘that big black
hole in the center of grandma’s diamond’,” he said. Years ago,
jewelers advised recutting the oldies for their clients who were used
to modern round brilliants. “Back then,” Fiebig reminisces, “most
of us just discussed re-cutting to proper proportions with minimal
loss to the diameter and great potential for increased brilliance.
Those older cuts just weren’t as attractive to the consumer.”
Internet access has changed all that. Consumers are savvier
about a lot of things today, including their taste in diamonds. Fiebig
finds that shoppers have come up to speed about diamond cutting
in general over the last 5 to10 years, perhaps in part as a result of
marketing the Tolkowsky cuts. “Older cuts now seem to garner
more respect from the public.”
Prominent jewelry appraiser, Charles Carmona, president of
Guild Labs, Los Angeles, has examined antique diamonds for
decades. “It is increasingly true that the public has preferred to
keep their inherited stones as they are. But I’ve encountered those
sentiments since I started in the business in the late 1970s.” Loyal
customers have come to rely on him for guidance about their
jewelry. “I always encourage my clients to keep the old stones as
they are.” Even damaged stones found in really old jewelry can
keep their original appeal. “And if they are damaged,” he advises,
“repair them, keeping them as old cuts.” That’s for aesthetic
reasons, says Carmona. “Modern cut diamonds with excellent cuts
all look alike. So if you have something a little unusual, stick with
it, and be a little different.”
What about valuing an antique cut diamond? “You always
appraise them for what they are and not for their recut value.” he
confirms. Carmona’s cultivated taste includes a fondness for the
older stones. “Nothing is prettier to me than a well made antique
cushion.”
Fortunately many old diamonds are still in circulation today.
Gemologist-diamond grader Laurie Seuss reports that about 20%
of the diamonds passing through the laboratory where she worked
were antique cuts. Those loose stones can find new life in modern
September 2015
jewelry but they require planning. “Depending on the stone and its
potential setting,” Seuss explains, “an older cut stone can make a
new piece of jewelry look unique. The challenges with Old Mine
and Euro cuts are their extremely large culets and extremely thin
girdles.” Creating new jewelry with old stones takes vision. “I
worry about setting safety with such thin girdles. The rose cuts I
like as they are.”
Tutoring can alter the impression people have about vintage
stones, according to Seuss. “For many customers, a little education
about the different cuts and the importance of cut to appearance of
the stone makes a big difference in their perception and willingness
to try different cuts.”
With demand strong for antique diamonds now, the future of
older diamond cuts looks secure, says Fiebig. “Vintage jewelry is
more popular than ever right now, and the pieces that survived
usually were the best quality available at the time. Older cut
diamonds have found their niche in this market.”
The market dictates demand and projects future traction of the old
diamond sector. “There is plenty of activity for old cuts in the
auction and resale markets,” confirms Carmona. “Look at the
growth of the estate jewelry business in our industry and you’ll see
that there is a great demand for old cuts.”
11
12
September 2015
Bring an additional friend or loved one!
129th Anniversary New York Mineralogical Club Banquet
Date:
Time:
Place:
Cost:
October 14, 2015 [Wednesday Evening]
6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. [Social Hour & Silent Auction from 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.]
Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, 57th Street Between Ninth & Tenth Avenues, NYC
$30 for Members/Guests (Advance Payment); $35 for Non-Members [or Payment at the Door]
Gala Dinner Menu (tentative)
Salad
Choice of Entree:
chicken • salmon • beef
Potatoes & Vegetables
Selection of Breads & Rolls
Red & White Wine
Soft Drink Assortment
“Garnet” Dessert Selection
Coffee & Tea
Special Guest Lecturer
Dr. Charles Merguerian, Renowned Geologist & Educator
“Geology and Mineralogy of the 86th Street / Second Ave
Subway Station Complex”
Amount
Please reserve _______ seat(s) for me at the Banquet @ $30.00 ($35.00 for non-members) each.
I will probably be ordering G Salmon G Chicken G Beef for my dinner entree(s).
Also included are my 2016 New York Mineralogical Club membership dues ($25 Individual, $35 Family).
I am adding a wine/dessert donation to help make the banquet an affair to remember. (Each bottle costs about $25.)
Please reserve a set of the following boxed Note Card Sets for me (Includes Envelopes for $6.00 each):
G Garnet! G Mineral & Gem Bookplates G Jade G Native Elements G Crystallography G Thin Sections
G Diamonds G Birthday Mineral Cards G Malachite G Quasicrystals G Lapis Lazuli G Quartz
I wish to make an additional donation as a sponsor to help support the Banquet & the NYMC.
» Total Included
Comments:
Name(s)
Street Address
Apt. No.
City
Phone
State
Zip
Email
Send in the reply order form below by October 12, 2015. We must receive this RSVP in order to guarantee your
reservation(s). Make your check payable to the “New York Mineralogical Club” and send it to: New York Mineralogical
Club Banquet, P.O. Box 77, Planetarium Station, NYC, NY 10024-0077. Or call Mitch Portnoy (212) 580-1343 or email
him at [email protected] to place your reservations.
September 2015
Scientists Move Big Step Closer to Solving
Mystery of Earth's Continents
How did Earth’s continents form? That’s one of geoscience’s
deepest mysteries, but now researchers may be a big step closer to
solving it – after gaining a new understanding of the process that
creates the continental crust, which makes up the land masses on
which we live.
13
To better understand why the land bridge is so young, the
researchers analyzed a global survey of volcanoes that have
formed where two slabs of Earth’s oceanic crust collided in
so-called subduction zones – after all, according to the researchers,
Costa Rica and Panama originated from similar oceanic crust
rendezvous.
The ‘key ingredient.’
The analysis revealed that when one slab of oceanic crust
sinks below another and plunges into the layer of Earth called the
mantle, it can heat and melt – if the conditions are right.
The researchers concluded that, although the formation of
continents may involve many processes, melting oceanic crust in
a subduction zone can indeed produce “juvenile” continental crust.
For instance, the melting of oceanic crust originally produced what
today are the Galapagos Islands, according to the researchers.
The Earth as seen from space. Science Source - NASA via Getty Images
Scientists used to think that the thick and buoyant continental
crust continually “recycles” itself, with giant slabs of the crust
occasionally sinking beneath each other only to rise again and
repeat the dance, building land masses.
An illustration of how continental crust forms as oceanic crust melts and
sinks into the Earth’s mantle.
“We, in agreement with some previous studies, propose that
it is the actual melting of the subducting oceanic crust that is the
‘key ingredient’ to produce continental crust,” Gazel said in the
email. “This new finding shows that ‘juvenile’ continental crust is
constantly being produced rather than recycled from older
material.”
Geoscience on March 31, 2015.
Source: huffingtonpost.com April 3, 2015
A Postman Collected Pebbles for 33 Years and
What He Created Is Astounding
Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, which is actively producing lava that is
chemically similar to the continental crust.
Recycling reconsidered.
A new study indicates, however, that some parts of Earth’s
continents aren’t recycled at all. Instead, the research suggests that
new continental crust results from the melting of oceanic crust
(found beneath Earth’s oceans).
“We’ve provided new evidence that will help us reveal a
major unknown in the evolution of our planet,” Dr. Esteban Gazel,
an assistant professor of geology at Virginia Tech’s College of
Science and the study’s lead author, told The Huffington Post in an
email.
A surprising find.
The researchers originally set out simply to reconstruct the
evolution of the continental crust in Costa Rica and Panama, but
they noticed something perplexing: geochemical and geophysical
data indicated that the so-called Central American land bridge that
connects North and South America became a new area of
continental crust in the last 10 million years – which is pretty
young since our planet’s continental mass emerged more than 2.5
billion years ago.
More than 120,000 people travel to the commune of Hauterives in southeastern France
every year to see the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, a stunning palace constructed
entirely from hand-picked pebbles.
Source: AOL.com June 16, 2015
14
September 2015
17 Pictures That Will Make You Want to Become a Geologist
Geology is a magnificent and unique science. What makes it so unique, you may rightly ask; well, a good geologist has to know something of
everything: physics, chemistry, geography, math, biology, engineering, and many, many more. But it’s worth it, oh how it’s worth it!
Folding at its Finest
Lava Easter Egg
Geological Field Work
Fossils
Sand
Antelope Canyon
Realgar on Calcite
Stibnite & Realgar
Geological Madness
Fountain Formation
World’s Biggest Crystals
Thin Sections
Maps
Meteorite
Madness
Merguerian
September 2015
Date
Event
Location
September 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Steve Okulewicz –
“Digging Gold in Alaska”
October 14
Annual Banquet
Holiday Inn Midtown
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Fluorescence (H. Heitner)
&IYL Special Demo (R. Bostwick/T. Hecht)
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: John Sanfaçon –
“Synthetic Minerals”
January 13, 2016
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Mitch Portnoy – “Pretty in
Pink - The Joys of Tennessee Marble”;
2nd Annual Chinese Auction!
February 10
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
March 9
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Alfredo Petrov–
“Flint from the Netherlands”
April 13
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
Special Lecture: Dr. Roland Scal –
“Microscopy of Gemstones”
May 11
Meeting at 6:45
Holiday Inn Midtown
TBD
Date
Event
Location
September 19-20
46th Annual Gem, Mineral,
Fossil Show & Sale
Gold’s Gym (Titusville Road),
Poughkeepsie, New York
Organized by Mid-Hudson Valley Gem & Mineral
Society; Theme: Herkimers!
September 26-27
59th Franklin-Sterling Hill
Mineral & Gem Show
Franklin Borough School (50
Washington Avenue) Franklin, NJ
Organized by: FOMS and the Franklin Mineral
Museum; Indoor/Outdoor Event
October 23-24
Austin, Texas
Details to Follow
November 7-8
Stamford Society Gem, Mineral,
& Fossil Show
Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, Old
Greenwich, Connecticut
Kids Activities, Door Prizes, Train Access from
NYC
November 14-15
March 5-6, 2016
April 8-10
NY/NJ Mineral, Gem & Fossil
Show
New Jersey Expo Center, Edison, New
Jersey
Exhibits, dealers, lectures, specialty area
July 27- Aug 1
Albany, Oregon
Details to Follow
October 21-23
Rochester, New York
November 12-13
For more extensive national and regional show information check online:
15
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bulletin Editor
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Dues: $25 Individual, $35 Family per calendar year. Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of every month (except July and August) at the Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, 57th
Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, New York City, New York. Meetings will generally be held in one of the conference rooms on the Mezzanine Level. The
doors open at 5:30 P.M. and the meeting starts at 6:45 P.M. (Please watch for any announced time / date changes.) This bulletin is published monthly by the New
York Mineralogical Club, Inc. The submission deadline for each month’s bulletin is the 20th of the preceding month. You may reprint articles or quote from this
bulletin for non-profit usage only provided credit is given to the New York Mineralogical Club and permission is obtained from the author and/or Editor. The Editor
and the New York Mineralogical Club are not responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of information or information in articles accepted for publication, nor are the
expressed opinions necessarily those of the officers of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
Next Meeting: Wednesday Evening, September 9, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: Professor Steve Okulewicz — “Digging Gold in Alaska”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 11
November 11th Meeting:
This meeting will have two parts!
I. A Fluorescence Demonstration
Richard Bostwick will provide a
demonstration of ultraviolet radiation and
its effects on minerals, household items,
etc. Modern shortwave, midwave, and
longwave mercury-arc lamps will be used,
as well as a 1930s-era iron arc. Conditions
permitting, triboluminescence will be
demonstrated, and fluorescence caused by
visible blue light. UV-blocking goggles
will be available.
Richard has collected fluorescent
minerals since 1960, particularly those of
Franklin and Sterling Hill. He is vice
president of the Franklin Mineral Museum
and a volunteer at Sterling Hill, where he
worked in 1975-78 as a miner.
II: A Fluorescence Lecture
Howard Heitner: “Fluorescence History, Mechanism, Applications”
Howard Heitner will present a
colorful and comprehensive overview of
fluorescence. It includes scientists like
George Stokes, Wilhelm Rontgen,
Einstein and Michael Pupin (a local boy
from Columbia U) as well as some
inventor named Edison.
Howard has been a mineral collector
for over 55 years. He has been a field
collector, purchaser of specimens, and
purchaser of collections. He is interested
in the historical aspects of mineralogy and
has written several articles. He has a
doctorate in chemistry. He spent most
ofhis career of about 30 years doing
research developing chemicals used in the
mining industry.
Both Richard and Howard are NYMC
members and have been popular speakers
at meetings over many years.
says “2015”, you owe your 2016 dues. Please take
NYC, NY 10024-0077.
November 2015
Fall New York City Gem & Mineral
Show is November 14-15, 2015
By Mitch Portnoy
The annual Fall New York City Gem
& Mineral Show will take place on
November 14-15, 2015 (Saturday &
Sunday) at the Holiday Inn Midtown
Manhattan (57th Street between 9th and 10th
Avenues).
The New York Mineralogical Club will
continue its successful partnership with the
show sponsor, Excalibur Mineral
Corporation (Tony Nikischer, President)
and host this event.
A list of the
diverse dealers
that will be selling
their fine wares at
the show can be
found on page 11 –
you
should
recognize most of
them but we do
have some new
dealers.
Since we have
n o
d i r e c t
commercial
interest in the
show, we do ask each dealer for a donation
to the Club’s June Benefit Auction as a
token of thanks for all the work we do to
help promote and manage the Show. These
items tend to be the best lots in the whole
auction so please come and patronize these
top-quality dealers. As a thanks in advance
(or maybe just for some encouragement),
we will give each dealer one of the Club’s
2016 gift calendar that we gave out at the
October gala banquet.
The Club’s booth will be in its regular
location (to the left as you enter the show).
There you can obtain a free Fall Show
Souvenir Card or show information, or just
say hi to your fellow NYMC friends. You
will notice a new prominent banner this
year promoting the Club’s new website:
www.newyorkmineralogicalclub.org.
This is also a good time to renew your
NYMC membership and pay your dues for
2016 if you have not already done so.
If you did not make it to the October
Garnet Banquet, this will be your chance
to obtain some or all of the gifts that you
missed (while supplies last) including a
garnet/subway information pack and a 2016
NYMC “Vintage Mineral & Gem Prints”
wall calendar.
In order to encourage mineral and gem
enthusiasts to join the club, Tony Nikischer
has donated minerals that we will give to
new members! And they are nice, believe
me! He has also regularly provided the free
minerals for children who attend the
show.
All current sets of Note Cards and
CD-ROMS will be available for sale. These
make great gifts!
Some of the sets’
v ar ied t h e me s
include ruby,
malachite, lapis,
quartz and light.
(There may be
other sets offered
as well, based on
any inspiration I
have in the weeks
preceding the
Show.)
Due to popular
demand, we will
once again be offering Gemstone Floaty
Pens! I thought the market was saturated
but apparently not. My contact is currently
producing them and has guaranteed intense
mineral color, variety and overall quality!
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
World of Minerals: Garnet III. . . . . . 3
Volcanic Triggers.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Mars Blue Spots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
San Andreas Faults.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Mars Glass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Iron: A Biological Element?.. . . . . . . 6
Earth’s Craters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: P is For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Topics in Gemology: Charmed. . . . . 9
Fall ‘15 Mineral Show Info. . . . 10-11
Membership Renewal Form. . . . . . . 12
Silent Auction Prices Realized. . . . . 13
Mars Thing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Water on Mars!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2
Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.
By Mitch Portnoy
The well-attended banquet has come and
gone but some gift 2016 calendars remain!
If you would like one, please let me know
and I will send you one (while supplies
last). They can also be gotten in person at
the Fall NYMC Gem & Mineral Show.
Club Meeting “Minutes” for
October 14, 2015 (Banquet)
Attendance: 77
Themes: The NYC Subway & Garnet
Announcements:

Calendar Ideas for 2017?
We may create another calendar for 2017.
Thematic ideas are requested but please
take the following criteria into account: It
should be doable, not just another
gem/mineral calendar, visually engaging,
relevant to the NYMC, and have no
violations of copyright.
Website Update
All “classic” NYMC publications from
1907 - 1959 are now available for free
download on the NYMC website. I have
noticed online (on Amazon) that some
greedy miscreants have repackaged and are
selling our stuff. Legal, but not right.
Online Archives Project
The Club started issuing bulletins in
January 1961 and my goal is to eventually
have all of them online. The last 25 years
or so is virtually complete. I am missing a
few issues from the early 90s, and about 10
or so from the 80s. The 70s are very spotty
and the 60s entirely absent. If you can help
fill in the blanks, let me know.

Advantages
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The banquet began with reception with a
beverage cart and a silent auction.
Dinner was served at 7:00 and this year a
vegetarian entree was offered for the first
time.
During the dinner a video about the NYC
subway narrated by former Mayor David
Dinkins was played as well as a musical
clip from the movie On the Town.
At about 8:15 a Garnet Locality game
was played with boxes of note cards
about garnet awarded as prizes.
The banquet meeting started at about
8:30 and it was dedicated to both Park
McGinty and Oliver Sacks. First timers
& LI colleagues were welcomed.
The day’s and month’s historical events
were presented followed by the silent
auction results. (See page 13.)
A NYMC website update was given by
Mitch Portnoy; Joe Krabak who built
our website and Charles Snider, who
was videotaping the banquet for upload
to the site, were thanked.
The new 2016 NYMC membership cards
were shown.
Items available for sale at the banquet
were shown. New: a red drawstring
backpack with the club web address.
The evening’s awards were presented.
Fall 2015 NYC Gem & Mineral Show
details were announced.
Upcoming NYMC meeting details thru
February 2016 were outlined.
The evening’s gifts including an
information folder, 2016 calendar and
facted garnet specimen (courtesy Ann
Vitiello, EMACO) were presented.
Dr. Charles Merguerian, the evening’s
speaker, was introduced.
November 2015
structural discoveries he made. Dr. Merguerian,
former Chairman of the Geology Department at
Hofstra University, Director of the Duke
Geological Laboratory, and a long-time Club
member, is a leading expert on New York City
geology. His expertise shone in his detailed
revelations that followed.
Charles Merguerian set the stage with a
scene of North America a billion years ago,
when the equator sliced diagonally across
North America and the sediments that
eventually became the Fordham gneiss were
originally deposited. A half a billion years later,
the East Coast lay south of the equator, and the
carbonates and sands of the continental shelf
and slope—the future Inwood marble and
Manhattan schist—slowly accumulated. Deeper
on the ocean floor, muds and sands of the
future Hartland formation piled up. But this
tranquil scene was subsequently disrupted by
the oceanic subduction beneath the Harland
during the Taconic Orogeny, starting around
450 million years ago. The City’s rocks were
later subjected to continental collisions that
resulted in extensive metamorphism,
deformation, and faulting. To the expert eye,
such as that of Charles, these features can be
easily spotted in the severely contorted folds
and fractures in the exposed schists and
pegmatitic veins in Central Park outcrops, as
well as in the subway tunnels. These rocks are
the last remnants of once lofty mountains that
rivaled the Alps or the Himalayas.
Members in the News

Eric Hoffman was the chief space
engineer at Johns' Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory on the
Horizons/Pluto findings project.
Alan Bronstein was one of the panelists
discussing pink diamonds at the NCDIA
- Pink Event NYC on October 2, 2015.
Congratulations to our webmaster, Joe
Krabak, on the birth of his son, Noah
G. Krabak, on October 3, 2015.
Special Lecture: Dr. Charles Merguerian
– “Geology & Mineralogy of the Second
Avenue Subway Complex”
Dr. Charles Merguerian led Club Bill Controfeld. . . . . . . East Arlington, VT
members on an insiders’ tour in his lecture on (First new member thru the club website!)
the construction of the 2nd Avenue subway SusAnna & Joel Grae. . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
tunnel, as well as the interesting mineral and Pablo Hoffman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NY
November 2015
3
Part III – Garnet and the Rise of the High Plains
Beyond the 100th meridian, near the western end of the
Great Plains, the corn and wheat fields of eastern Kansas,
Nebraska, and the Dakotas gradually give way to cattle country,
as the land rises imperceptibly toward the foothills of the
Rockies. The gently inclined belt of the High Plains eventually
reaches elevations
of over 1,500
meters (5,000 ft).
Why this belt of
undeformed
sedimentary rocks
sits so high has
long puzzled
geologists. But
now,
some
researchers have
put forth a bold
explanation in
which garnet plays
an important role.
Prior to ~70
million years ago, a
giant seaway
extended deep into
the interior of North America. What is now northern New
Mexico, Colorado, western Wyoming and southern Montana lay
close to sea level. Subsequently, an oceanic tectonic plate began
to plunge beneath western North America at a fairly shallow
angle, leading to an active period of mountain building (the
Laramide Orogeny) that changed the landscape of the West.
Large parts of the western states underwent extensive buckling,
bending, faulting and igneous intrusions that ultimately
culminated in the uplift of the Rockies. But eastern Montana,
Wyoming, and Colorado—the core of the High Plains—escaped
this geologic turmoil. Conventional explanations for the high
elevation of this region proved inadequate. The High Plains lack
major thrust faults that could have pushed one thick slab of rock
up over another. The region also lacks massive igneous
intrusions that could have thickened the crust. The High Plains
were tilted eastward during the regional arching of the Rockies.
Streams then began to erode and cut down the rising mountains,
depositing sediments in the east. However, most of the erosion
occurred much later—during the wetter periods of the
Pleistocene ice ages. Furthermore, thick piles of sediment are
missing from the southern High Plains.
A group of geologists from the University of Colorado in
Boulder have therefore come up with a novel idea. The High
Plains are high because they are buoyed up by lighter minerals.
Water released by the sinking oceanic plate reacted with dense,
lower crust minerals to form less dense ones. The resulting
increase in buoyancy lifted up the region. “Garnet is the magic
mineral”, says Gene Humphrey, a geologist from the University
of Oregon. Dense minerals, such as garnet, pyroxene, and
plagioclase, would have been altered by the water to amphibole,
mica, and other less dense minerals. Water released by the
descending ocean plate could have extended far inland, creating
fluids that interacted with lower crustal rocks beneath the High
Plains that otherwise were unscathed by deformation, thereby
contributing to their uplift.
Close examination of xenoliths1 from various localities by
microscope clearly illustrates the transformation of garnet,
pyroxene, and
plagioclase to an
altered, secondary
a s s e m b l a ge o f
micas, chlorite,
albite, and calcite.
While the exact
age of the xenoliths
has yet to be
conclusively
determined, one
specimen dated to
the time of the
Laramide Orogeny,
or later, contains
plagioclase that has
undergone the
same type of
aqueous alteration
that destroyed the garnet elsewhere. Furthermore, seismic wave
velocities that correlate strongly with rock density show a
progressive decrease going from Montana in the north to
Colorado in the south. This closely corresponds to the increase
in land elevation from north to south. Calculations suggest that
the reduced crustal density due to the mineral transformations
could largely account for the changes in topography.
Although studies of xenoliths and seismic waves are still
incomplete, the data gathered so far support the notion of water
interacting with and altering the mineral composition of the
lower crust beneath Wyoming and Colorado. The resulting
decrease in rock density could readily account for the
topographic change of up to 2 kilometers (6,600 ft). However,
more work would be needed to further tie down the age of the
proposed hydration event and to check whether other possible
mechanisms related to tectonism may not have also been
involved. Craig Jones, the chief author of the paper doesn’t mind
the criticisms. He admits that he is “not so much reaching a
conclusions as suggesting an idea.” This is the way scientists
work. They come up with new theories and see how far they can
push them.
Further Reading
Jones, C.H., and other, 2015. Continental uplift through crustal
hydration. Geology 43(4):355-358.
Rosen, J., 2015. Did crustal chemistry buoy Western Plains?
Earth July/Aug. 2015, p. 25.
1
Exotic rock fragments from the lower crust carried to the
surface by volcanic eruptions.
4
November 2015
Ka-boom! Scientists Find New Trigger of
Volcanic Eruptions
Blue Spots on Mars Look like Liquid Water–but
Aren't
An international team of researchers has discovered a
previously unknown trigger of volcanic eruptions – a finding that
could give scientists a leg up on predicting blow-ups and saving
lives.
By David Freeman
A startling new photograph of Mars shows beautiful blue
pools of water just right for a refreshing swim–or so it seems.
View of the Villarrica volcano, one of Chile's most active, taken from
Pucon, some 800 km south of Santiago, on May 6, 2015.
“Understanding the triggers for volcanic eruptions is vital for
forecasting efforts, hazard assessment and risk mitigation,” Dr.
Janine Kavanagh, a volcanologist at the University of Liverpool in
England and the leader of the team, said in a written statement.
“With more than 600 million people worldwide living near a
volcano at risk of eruptive activity, it is more important than ever
that our understanding of these complex systems and their
triggering mechanisms is improved.”
For their research, the scientists built a volcano model using
a tank filled with jelly. They injected colored water into the tank
to mimic ascending magma and then observed how the materials
behaved using a high-speed camera and synchronized laser.
What happened? The researchers noticed a surprising drop in
pressure when the ascending “magma” stalled to spread out
horizontally along its journey to the surface of the tank –
geologists call this horizontal formation a “sill.”
It turns out that the drop in pressure can cause the magma to
behave like a buoyant foam, since magma often has gas dissolved
in it. And that’s when the drama begins.
“A pressure drop can drive the release of dissolved gases,
potentially causing the magma to explode and erupt,” Prof. Sandy
Cruden, professor of tectonics and geodynamics at Monash
University in Australia and another member of the team, said in
the written statement. “It’s similar to removing a cap from a bottle
of shaken fizzy drink – the pressure drop causes bubbles to form
and the associated increase in volume results in a fountain of foam
erupting from the bottle.”
But the million-dollar question remains: Does this new finding
point to a reliable way to predict potentially dangerous volcanic
eruptions? Possibly. A horizontal sill and rapid pressure drop could
serve as a warning that an eruption is on its way.
“It is very difficult to predict volcanic eruptions,” Kavanagh
told The Huffington Post in an email. “The accuracy of the
‘prediction’ often depends on the availability of data (e.g. how well
equipped a volcano observatory is) but increasingly also on the
interpretation of any available satellite data. Our results will help
inform the interpretation of the satellite data; helping to identify if
magma is moving, where it is going and potentially if it might
erupt.”
The research was published online in the journal Earth and
Planetary Science Letters on April 21, 2015.
Source: huffingtonpost.com May 17, 2015
In fact, the blue regions in the image–which was taken by the
European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter–are dark
sediments that look like liquid water because of the way the image
was processed, according to the agency’s website.
Water is known to exist on Mars, but the Red Planet is so cold
that, with the possible exception of some transient melting, it’s all
frozen solid.
The photo shows the Arabia Terra region of Mars, a dense
patchwork of ancient impact craters of all sizes--some heavily
sculpted by the superfast winds that scour the planet’s surface. The
deposits in the large, 70-kilometer-wide crater on the left and the
smaller crater on the right contain the sediments, which are
composed of an igneous rock known as basalt. The sediments have
accumulated over time after being blown into the craters by the
Martian winds, which the agency says can reach speeds of 100
kilometers per hour.
The image was taken by the orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo
Camera on Nov. 19, 2014 and released by the agency on June 1,
2015. The orbiter has been orbiting Mars since December 2003.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com June 3, 2015
San Andreas: Separating 5 Facts From
Earthquake Fiction
By Graham Kent, Ph.D.
Sometime in the future, cafés in Kathmandu will be abuzz
about a devastating magnitude-8 earthquake, except this time the
temblor will have been half a world away, in California, where the
San Andreas Fault will have finally ruptured after a long period of
dormancy.
Although criticism of the recently released film San Andreas
from scientific circles is a certainty, as a state seismologist for
Nevada, with responsibility for monitoring Nevada and parts of
eastern California, I welcome this movie and hope it marks the
beginning of a serious conversation about the real consequences of
a large earthquake in modern America. Whatever the scientific
flaws of San Andreas may be – and they are plenty – the
consequences of a large urban earthquake remain unnerving.
With a little help (OK, a lot of help), Hollywood went with the
“wall-to-wall” scenario and ruptured the entire San Andreas Fault,
extending from near the Mexican border almost to Oregon. This
kind of rupture has never been seen and is a highly unlikely
scenario given both historic and paleo-earthquake records. And in
reality, the magnitude would be closer to 8.3, not 9 as depicted in
the movie.
November 2015
5
masonry (URMs) buildings and soft-story structures, not
modern buildings, which will shake, rattle and sway but
not necessarily collapse – a far cry from scenes in the
movie.
Of course, Hollywood paints a bigger-than-life picture and
plays with the truth in order to entertain, so let’s try to separate fact
from fiction with this latest take on the disaster genre.
Here are five truths about the depictions in San Andreas:
1. The trigger: Can a large earthquake in Nevada trigger
the San Andreas Fault or knock down Hoover Dam like
in the movie? Western Nevada and eastern California
occupy the Walker Lane, which has some fault lines that
are capable of generating quakes with magnitudes up to
about 7.5 (just not near Hoover Dam). Larger Nevada
earthquakes can trigger other regional earthquakes; it
happened in reverse in 1992, when the magnitude-7.3
Landers quake in eastern California likely triggered the
magnitude-5.7 Little Skull Mountain earthquake north of
Las Vegas about a day later. But the San Andreas Fault?
Not likely.
2. The tsunami: Will a towering, earthquake-generated
tsunami inundate California? Most of the San Andreas
Fault is landlocked, and when it heads offshore, it
occupies shallow waters. In the 1906 earthquake a
less-than-a-half-meter wave was generated. Strong
shaking could trigger landslides offshore that could
spawn a tsunami, which appears to have happened after
an 1812 earthquake near Santa Barbara, which resulted in
a tsunami wave several meters in height. In neither case
is it a towering megatsunami that inundates coastlines
and big bridges.
3. The crevasse: Most large earthquakes with ground
rupture have associated tension cracks that can, at times,
get large enough to place an arm into, a far cry from the
chasm seen in San Andreas. The San Andreas Fault will
not swallow up cars, people or buildings.
4. East Coast shakeup: Will the East Coast feel a West
Coast earthquake as San Andreas portrays? Although
Washington, D.C., might seem to be the epicenter of
dysfunction of late, it gets to sit this event out in terms of
ground shaking from a large West Coast earthquake.
When both political parties see the FEMA bill from the
next major San Andreas quake, with damages estimated
at $200 billion or more, only then will politicians start to
shake.
5. Nothing left standing: Will California’s skyscrapers
collapse? As two of our Nevada Seismological
Laboratory graduate students can attest after recently
riding out the magnitude-7.3 “aftershock” in Kathmandu,
even with their poor building standards, destruction in
Nepal looked nothing like that seen in San Andreas.
Here’s a prediction: Most damage associated with future
U.S. earthquakes will be focused on unreinforced
As a seismologist and the director of the Nevada
Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, and
as a fan of really good movies, my hope is that Dwayne Johnson,
the actor known as “The Rock,” delivers a good blockbuster hit
that does not resemble Hollywood’s 2003 science-fiction flop The
Core in any way, shape or form.
With many Americans getting their science news from
nontraditional sources such as The Daily Show or Vice, maybe The
Rock can help start this conversation. California in particular is
leading the nation in innovative approaches to preparedness and
mitigation associated with “The Big One.” California gave rise to
the nationwide Great ShakeOut annual earthquake exercise;
Nevada (the third most seismically active state in the United
States) was the second state to join. San Francisco recently hired
a dedicated Resilience Officer, a first, to ensure minimal downtime
after the next big quake. What is your city doing?
Nascent earthquake-warning systems, both public and private,
are running in the Golden State, and we are beginning to institute
systems in Nevada. The California Governor’s Office of
Emergency Services, along with federal (e.g., USGS and FEMA)
and local partners, routinely run exercises to out-fox the next big
earthquake. Other entities such as the California Integrated Seismic
Network, California Earthquake Authority and California Seismic
Safety Commission play their integral roles in all things
earthquake.
Nonetheless, this system is predicated on an informed public,
and maybe, just maybe, San Andreas can be that catalyst in
California’s all-in strategy and an impetus for other states to be
prepared.
Graham Kent, Ph.D., is a seismologist and director of the Nevada
Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno. He
has conducted research on the San Andreas Fault in Southern
California and around the world.
NASA Orbiter Discovers Glass on Mars
Talk about shattering expectations!
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has circled the Red
Planet more than 40,000 times since arriving there in 2006. During
that time, the spacecraft has spied everything from avalanches to
dust devils to buried glaciers.
And now, for the first time ever, it has detected deposits of
glass nestled in impact craters on the Martian surface. The finding
may have important implications for the search for ancient life on
Mars.
“In the past the search for life focused on ‘following the
water,’ and looking for sedimentary rocks formed in lake or river
environments,” Kevin Cannon, a Ph.D. student at Brown
University in Providence, R.I. and one of the researchers involved
in the discovery, told The Huffington Post in an email. “Now
there’s another possible preservation mechanism that could be
equally as promising.”
The researchers aren’t the only ones crowing about the find.
As Bill Nye, “The Science Guy” and CEO of The Planetary
Society, told The Huffington Post in an email, “This discovery
could change the world.”
“If we are able to return a sample of impact glasses from
Mars, and they prove to have signatures of organic molecules or
6
life, it would motivate humankind to explore Mars in ernest,
allocating more resources to the effort and engaging citizens
around the world,” Nye said in the email. “If we were to prove that
there were or even are living things on Mars, it would change how
every person Earth feels about what it means to be alive in the
cosmos. It would be akin to the discoveries made by Copernicus
and Galileo.”
November 2015
Iron: a Biological Element?
By Staff Writers
Think of an object made of iron: An I-beam, a car frame, a
nail. Now imagine that half of the iron in that object owes its
existence to bacteria living two and a half billion years ago. That’s
the upshot of a study published this week in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The findings have
meaning for fields as diverse as mining and the search for life in
space.
Clark Johnson, a professor of geoscience at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, and former postdoctoral researcher Weiqiang
Li examined samples from the banded iron formation in Western
Australia. Banded iron is the iron-rich rock found in ore deposits
worldwide, from the proposed iron mine in Northern Wisconsin to
the enormous mines of Western Australia.
Researchers have found deposits of impact glass (in green) preserved in Martian
craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. The detection is based on data from the
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Research has shown that bits of plant life were preserved in
impact glass on Earth – sort of like how insects get trapped in
amber – as comets and asteroids struck our planet near what is now
Argentina millions of years ago. This gave researchers the idea of
looking for similar deposits on Mars.
“Billions of years ago, when microbial life may have littered
the Red Planet, the occasional meteor impact could accidentally
encase bits and pieces of this ancient biology in glassy packaging,”
Dr. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in
Mountain View, Calif., who was not involved in the research, told
The Huffington Post in an email. “So if you’re going to look for
life that’s been gone for billions of years, this suggests that a
promising way to do so is to simply find it lying around,
conveniently bottled.”
To figure out how to find the Martian glass deposits, Cannon
and co-author Jack Mustard, a professor of earth, environmental
and planetary sciences at Brown, first conducted a simple
experiment in their laboratory.
They mixed together powders containing compounds similar
to those known to exist on Mars, and heated them in an oven to
produce glass. Then they measured the spectra of light reflected by
the resulting glass – and looked for similar signals in the orbiter’s
imaging data.
“The researchers’ analysis suggests glass deposits are
relatively common impact features on Mars,” Jim Green, director
of NASA’s planetary science division at the agency’s headquarters
in Washington, D.C., said in a written statement. “These areas
could be targets for future exploration as our robotic scientific
explorers pave the way on the journey to Mars with humans in the
2030s.”
One glass-containing crater of particular interest is called
Hargraves. It’s located in a region that once contained warm vents,
and was likely hospitable for life – and it’s being considered as a
possible landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.
The research was published online in the journal Geology on
Jun 5, 2015.
Source: huffingtonpost.com June 10, 2015
By studying iron extracted from cores drilled in rocks similar to these in Karijini
National Park, Western Australia, UW-Madison researchers determined that half of the
iron atoms had originated in shallow oceans after being processed by microbes 2.5
billion years ago. Image courtesy of Clark Johnson.
These ancient deposits, up to 150 meters deep, were begging
for explanation, says Johnson.
Scientists thought the iron had entered the ocean from hot,
mineral-rich water released at mid-ocean vents that then
precipitated to the ocean floor. Now Johnson and Li, who is
currently at Nanjing University in China, show that half of the iron
in banded iron was metabolized by ancient bacteria living along
the continental shelves.
The banding was thought to represent some sort of seasonal
changes. The UW-Madison researchers found long-term swings in
the composition, but not variations on shorter periods like decades
or centuries.
The study began with precise measurements of isotopes of
iron and neodymium using one of the world’s fastest lasers, housed
in the UW-Madison geoscience department. (Isotopes, forms of an
atom that differ only by weight, are often used to “fingerprint” the
source of various samples.)
Bursts of light less than one-trillionth of a second long
vaporized thin sections of the sample without heating the sample
itself. “It’s like taking an ice cream scoop and quickly pulling out
material before it gets heated,” Johnson explains. “Heating with
traditional lasers gave spurious results.”
It took three years to perfect the working of the laser and
associated mass spectrometry instruments, Li says.
Previous probes of the source of banded iron had focused on
iron isotopes. “There has been debate about what the iron isotopes
were telling us about the source,” Li says. “Adding neodymium
changed that picture and gave us an independent measure of the
amount coming from shallow continental waters that carried an
isotopic signature of life.”
November 2015
7
The idea that an organism could metabolize iron may seem
strange today, but Earth was very different 2.5 billion years ago.
With little oxygen in the atmosphere, many organisms derived
energy by metabolizing iron instead of oxygen.
Biologists say this process “is really deep in the tree of life,
but we’ve had little evidence from the rock record until now,”
Johnson says. “These ancient microbes were respiring iron just like
we respire oxygen. It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around, I
admit.” The current study is important in several ways, Johnson
says. “If you are an exploration geologist, you want to know the
source of the minerals so you know where to explore.”
The research also clarifies the evolution of our planet – and of
life itself – during the “iron-rich” era 2.5 billion years ago. “What
vestiges of the iron-rich world remain in our metabolism?”
Johnson asks. “It’s no accident that iron is an important part of life,
that early biological molecules may have been iron-based.”
NASA has made the search for life in space a major focus and
sponsors the UW-Madison Astrobiology Institute, which Johnson
directs. Recognizing unfamiliar forms of life is a priority for the
space agency.
The study reinforces the importance of microbes in geology.
“This represents a huge change,” Johnson says. “In my
introductory geochemistry textbook from 1980, there is no mention
of biology, and so every diagram showing what minerals are stable
at what conditions on the surface of the Earth is absolutely wrong.”
Research results like these affect how classes are taught,
Johnson says. “If I only taught the same thing, I would be teaching
things that are absolutely wrong. If you ever wonder why we
combine teaching and research at this university, geomicrobiology
gives you the answer. It has completely turned geoscience on its
ear.”
Source: SpaceDaily.com from June 28, 2015
Then the scientists used the combined data to estimate the
number of impact craters and compared the estimate to existing
crater reports. They found that the number of craters discovered
matches up with their estimate.
“Our study shows that erosion on Earth has been fast enough
to destroy all the large craters except for those already found,”
Hergarten said in the email. “I think some more might be found,
but it is like lottery.”
What do other scientists make of the study? Dr. Brandon
Johnson, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, told
Science magazine that he too was surprised by the finding.
“It’s the first time anyone has done this kind of thing – taking
into account the effects of erosion,” he said. But, he added, the
new study examines only craters at or near the planet’s
surface–and there may be more craters that have become deeply
buried.
So, Johnson urged, “Don’t stop searching... just search
deeper.”
Hergarten and Kenkmann acknowledged that there may still
be small craters waiting to be found. In fact, according to their
data, more than 90 craters that range in diameter from one
kilometer to six kilometers are yet to be discovered.
The study was published online in the journal Earth and
Planetary Science Letters on June 12, 2015.
Now We Know How Many Craters Earth Has
Charles pointed out the distinctive mineralogy of the various
Manhattan formations: the distinctive brownish biotite with black
graphite, pyrite, garnet and plagioclase of the Walloomsac schist in
the Bronx, the magnetite-rich, kyanite, biotite, garnet, plagioclase and
quartz of the classic Manhattan schist, and the muscovite-rich
Hartland schist, characteristic of its deep-water origin. Intercalated
amphibolite layers represent metamorphosed basalt.
Turning to the construction of the 2nd Avenue Tunnel, Charles
carefully outlined the multiple complex steps in drilling, blasting, and
boring into solid bedrock beneath a densely populated neighborhood
and highly-trafficked avenue. Much of the tunnel route lies in the
Hartland Formation, which is easier to drill than the other two
formations, thanks to its well-layered foliation, supplied by ample
flaky muscovite. Nevertheless, the turbulent geologic past left its mark
in the form of heavily-fractured zones that held up the progress of
drilling, until the weakened rocks were safely shored up.
The pattern of NE-and NW-trending fractures was one repeated
citywide, above-ground as well as underground. Many of the fault or
fracture zones were well-mineralized with thin veins of yellow stilbite,
calcite, and pyrite, with occasional outcrops of greenish epidote and
pink K-feldspar. While the NE-trending fractures likely dated to the
Paleozoic deformations, Charles suggested that the NW-trending
faults, such as the ones along 125th Street, Dykman St., and the
Harlem River might be linked to younger transform faults on the
ocean floor.
As in previous presentations, Hammy the Hamster made a guest
appearance, this time enthusiastically driving the motion of a big
wheel. Garnets, the theme mineral of the banquet, also made guest
appearances sprinkled amongst the Hartland and Manhattan schists,
bedecking the dinner guests, coloring the evening clothes and the
desserts, and finally distributed as special gifts!
Have scientists found all of Earth’s impact craters? A
surprising new study suggests that, indeed, that’s the case – at least
for the big ones.
The meteor crater in Arizona. | Getty Images
The study, conducted at the University of Freiburg in
Germany, shows that our planet has 128 impact craters bigger than
six kilometers in diameter. That tally is shockingly low given how
many such craters have been identified on other bodies in the solar
system – such as Mars and our own moon.
The number was so unexpectedly low that Dr. Stefan
Hergarten, a geophysicist at the university and study co-author,
told The Huffington Post in an email, “Admittedly, it even took us
some time to be confident in our own result.
The Clearwater East crater (now a lake) in Quebec, Canada,
that may have formed about 290 million years ago. New research
suggests that all of the large impact craters on Earth have already
been found.
For the study, Hergarten and a geologist at the university, Dr.
Thomas Kenkmann, considered the frequency of asteroid impacts
on Earth with the pace of erosion in different regions (which could
either fill in or break down a crater).
October 14, 2015 Banquet Meeting Minutes
Banquet Special Lecture: Dr. Charles Merguerian
“Geology & Mineralogy of the 2nd Avenue Subway Complex”
8
November 2015
Phenacite, not likely to be found in our
P is for . . .
general area, produces exceptional
We will discuss pectolite, phenacite
specimens from Russia, Madagascar,
and prehnite this month; all qualify as
Brazil, Colorado and occasionally from
species (see Back, 2014.) Gems for
New Hampshire, Maine and Virginia.
pectolite are rather scarce except for the
Currently, it seems that Brazil is most
variety larimar which is found in
prolific and, historically, has the best
cabochons at many shows. Very rarely,
quality specimens. The biggest crystals
you may find a faceted white stone up to
are from the Takovaya region in Russia
3 carats (probably from Asbestos,
and Kragero, Norway. Rarely, Russian
Quebec). Phenacite is a much better gem;
crystals have a pinkish-orange center that
however, it has little color or fire and will
some people believe has special
probably never be very popular. Usually
metaphysical properties. They are
seen in stones weighing a few carats,
certainly rare and may command high
there are larger stones on public exhibit
prices. I once saw a crystal completely
in the 20 plus carat range. Reports
Blue pectolite var. larimar, Dominican Republic
enclosing an emerald that was found in
indicate one 569 carat monster from Sri
Russia. I still regret passing up that piece
Lanka. Prehnite, also a little used gem
but it had a big number on its label. If you go to Lord’s Hill in
species, can be faceted but generally yields stones of a few carats
Maine or Baldface Mt. in New Hampshire and are persistent and
and rarely to 30 carats. Cabochons in various shades exist; they are
lucky you may find a phenacite of your
not especially sought after but can be
own. Yes, they still find crystals on Mt.
very pretty. It is rarely reported to occur
Antero, too. If I were buying one,
as cat’s-eye stones.
however, the Brazilian samples remain as
Fluorescence in pectolite is known
the finest known.
from Asbestos, Quebec – we find orange
Prehnite presents one of the
LW and, more weakly SW. At Mt. St.
possibilities
collectors should be aware of
Hilaire, we find pink LW and rarely SW
in our area. New Jersey, and to a lesser
as well. Nearby Paterson, New Jersey has
extent, Connecticut both are productive
orange LW and pink SW samples but not
areas for good specimens. Access to good
all examples will show this behavior.
collecting is more and more problematic
Franklin, New Jersey has been noted for
but road cuts have been good and new
orange SW and LW colors. Phenacite,
road work might be worth a look. If you
notably from the Mt. Antero area, may
buy, remember that New Jersey and
show orange-red or pink SW reactions.
Virginia can be considered among the
Madagascar has some samples that
very best localities for samples. Recent
fluoresce red – sometimes this is
material from Mali has beautiful green
attributed to iron. Iron usually spoils
globules, often with nice epidote crystals.
fluorescent responses; hence this is an
The good news is these are still easily
interesting material. Prehnite, as at
Phenacite crystal from Burma
found at many mineral shows. I
Franklin, New Jersey may exhibit pale
purchased a little green sample from
orange SW coloration. White
Russia
–
it
remains
the
only
one I have ever seen but shows that
fluorescence (SW) and yellow (LW) reactions are known in
this species occurs there (and just about everywhere else.) Wellmaterial from the Crestmore quarry in California. Asbestos,
formed crystals are supposed to occur at Asbestos but, as far as I
Quebec has mineral samples with blue (LW) fluorescence.
know, no real single crystal has ever been
According to mindat.org, there are
found anywhere. Looking at them, you
497 localities for pectolite; phenacite has
may notice the slight curvature along the
524 and prehnite has 544. It seems to me
edge – this suggests multiple crystals are
that there are many more possible for
present. A perfect single would be
prehnite but those are the current
desired for any collection as well as for
numbers available on the website.
detailed study of this species.
What can be said regarding
Regarding color, prehnite is often
specimens for collectors? Fortunately, we
green but I have collected white, pale
find, arguably, some of the very best
gray, blue and yellow samples from the
pectolite samples nearby. New Jersey,
Woodbury, Connecticut region. Surely
notably at Prospect Park, New Street and
the colors are not very brilliant but
Bergen Hill are well-known sources for
nonetheless interesting for discerning
fine specimens. I think collectors do not
Prehnite from New Jersey
collectors.
care about this species because it is white
and, maybe, problematic to handle.
November 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
Topics in Gemology is a monthly column written by Diana Jarrett, GG, RMV, based on gemological questions posed to her over the
years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at [email protected].
Charmed, I’m Sure
Jewelry is frequently meant to be a personal expression of its
wearer. But one type in particular, the classic charm, is most
iconic for displaying life’s special moments at a glance. That’s an
Egyptian pyramid charm dangling from your bracelet? So, you’ve
been to the Nile!
Going Back
Charms are an early invention as evidenced from ancient
African archeological site ruins dating back 75,000 years. Shell
adornments used by early peoples have been discovered there.
Ancient Egyptians used charms for identification, and as totems of
faith and luck. In more contemporary times, charm bracelets were
must-haves for society ladies when Queen Victoria started a trend
amongst European nobility in the 19th century.
Tough times never quashed the demand for charm bracelets,
however. They actually flourished throughout the Great Depression
when platinum, gold and diamond accented charms were
manufactured in abundance. Later on, American screen idols fueled
the ardor for these miniature works of art in their heyday in the
1950s and 1960s. Film legends like Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth
Taylor and Joan Crawford kept these petite ornaments in the
forefront of jewelry must-haves. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s
famous charm bracelet from the early 1960s was very telling as to
what life was like in Camelot.
with old-school workmanship. And the rarer the better. Antique
jewelry dealers are always on the hunt for that certain something
that will never come around again.
Vintage and antique jewelry dealers and husband and wife
team Tuvia and Dori Paul co-own eFiligree Vintage and Antique
Jewelry. Recently they came into possession of a treasure trove of
new old-stock charms. They knew they were onto something rare.
Their source revealed that the lot of gold charms, some with
gemstones or diamonds, some with enamel embellishment, had
been stashed and forgotten for decades. It’s not exactly clear how
old they are, but the charm themes and other information date
them to between the late 1930s to the 1950s,
After carefully examining the charms one by one, it dawned
on the Pauls exactly what they had found. The detailed
workmanship in these mini sculptures was extraordinary even for
the time in which they were produced. Many of these clever
charms boast movable components. In a Jonah and the Whale
charm, a man’s head pops out from inside the mouth of a big fish.
A doctor’s bag charm opens to reveal a pink enameled newborn
inside.
Ice Pick Charm
Cash Register Charm
Typewriter Charm
Everything Old is New Again
Now the 21st century, one may assume that charms have told
all the stories they have to tell, causing jewelry fans to move on. A
younger demographic today knows little about those charms of
their glory days of the mid-20th century. Instead, these decades
have seen colorful bead charms becoming trendy. While they can
be self-purchased or gifted one at a time, that’s where the similarity
ends. Bead charms look quite similar except for their color. No one
will ever ask if you went to Florida when admiring a ceramic bead.
But a little golden gator dangling coyly off a bracelet will strike up
that conversation.
The aspect of self expression inherent to the story-telling in
charms resonates with those craving personalized jewelry. This fact
has reenergized collectors of all ages to embrace figurative charms
that represent objects that are recognizable. Real charms are
making real headways in 2015.
The Hunt’s On
Vintage and estate jewelers are a different breed than other
luxury goods purveyors. They rely on acquiring one-offs crafted
Cuckoo Clock Charm
Mysteries Decoded
A charm’s subject matter aids in dating it. For example, a
lovely boot charm boasts a smiling kitty emerging from the top.
Children from the 1930s and 1940s recognize this as Puss in
Boots. Research revealed another charm with a little golden fox
and stork (or crane) is actually a popular Aesop’s Fable from the
1920s.
The hoard revealed more recognizable charms depicting
animals, and sports equipment. Wildly popular bar themed charms
from the mid century, like cocktail glasses and even a mini-bar
amuse. There glistens a gold and white enameled toilet seat, pulls
up to read “Paint the Town Red”. Imagine the recipient’s delight
receiving this darling charm paired with a pretty little champagne
bottle charm.
Even seasoned antique jewelry wholesalers like the Paul’s
were taken aback by the sheer quantity and unexpected themes
portrayed in their cache. Dori was flummoxed by “the sheer
quantity of them and the fact that each one was more unique or
funny or brazen than the last.” She’s not alone in this adoration.
“Customers love the depth and breadth of them---marveling at an
old desk, or a diner counter with miniature bar stools, to carnival
rides and on and on,” Dori claims.
10
Why Retailers Love ‘em
Retailer, Eve Celsi, at Maloys Jewelry in Portland, OR got first
looks at these charms. “From an antique jewelry dealer’s
perspective, viewing the collection is about as close to time travel
as I can expect. This type of charm, with moving parts, or enamel,
or both, is incredibly rare in any condition.” Their rarity and fine
condition ups their appeal and value. “To see them in original,
mint, perfect condition like this, and in multiples, no less, is pretty
much unheard of. I have never seen these before in any condition…
they aren’t even in any of the books,” Celsi explains.
Fine charms are still being manufactured today. But the
vintage charms have a special appeal, Celsi found. “Even where
there are multiples of the same designs, the lettering, or the
expressions on the tiny hand painted faces is slightly different on
each one. They are full of the personality of the artisan that made
them.”
It’s no surprise that an expert who understands the value in
these charms would fall in love with some. “I know I will never see
a selection like this again,” Celsi said. “One is the tiny gold Puss
in Boots. Besides that, one of the oddest charms I’ve ever seen is
a little enameled rotisserie chicken, spinning on a spit in an oven.”
The quirky ones like the toilet seat charm resplendent in its white
enamel is also a head turner. Celsi reveals, “One of my favorites is
a small round shadow box. Push the buttons on the side and a pair
of silhouettes moves together and kiss.”
Puss in Boots Charm
Steak on Grill Charm
A new demographic of jewelry consumers are embracing these
realistic charms, Celsi discovered. “Even people that aren’t really
into charms, or sadly think that “charms” mean beads, are
completely delighted by the artistry and wit of these tiny, charming
time capsules.”
New Mineral Show NYMC Banner!
November 2015
New! For Sale at the Show – $10
NYMC Drawstring Backpack
They’re Back! By Popular Demand!
Floaty Gemstone Pens
For Sale at the Show – $5 each
November 2015
Fall 2015 Mineral Show Lectures
11
At the Fall 2015 Mineral Show
Pick Up Your Free
2016 Club Meeting & Event Calendar
For Sale at the Show – Only $10
2015 Fall Gem & Mineral Show Booth Roster
For Sale at the Show – CD ROM – Only $5
1
2
Aurora Mineral Corp
3
Somethings / China & South Seas
4
Highland Rock & Fossil
5
Amazon Imports
6
Raj Minerals
7
John Betts Fine Minerals
8
Gems Art Studio
9
The Essence
10
Malachite & Gems of Africa
11
Margola Corp.
12
Khyber Gemstone
14
Rocko Minerals & Jewelry
15
AYS International
16
Great Opals, LLC
17
Mahalo Minerals
18
Crystal Circle Fine Minerals
19
Bary Gems, Inc.
20
NEW!!!
Howard Schlansker Wholesale Minerals & Gifts
(For qualified buyers only!)
(Above List Subject to Change)
12
November 2015
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November 2015
2015 Banquet Silent Auction Prices Realized
By Mitch Portnoy
Special Garnet Section
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Gemmy Spessartine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Andradite (var. Melanite).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Grossular.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Andradite (Green via Chromium). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Andradite (Green - Very Pure).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Garnet & Pearl Bracelet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
(1) Natural & (1) Polished Garnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
(1) Natural & (1) Polished Garnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Bag of Garnet “Raw Beads”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tumbled Garnet Bangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Faceted Strand of Garnet Beads.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Polished Garnet Wand and Pyramid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Large Garnets in Matrix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Large Glass “Garnet” on “Garnet” Glass Beads. . . . . . . 12
Gemmy Garnets on Matrix.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Jewelry Section
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
Blue Bead Multi-Strand Choker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Long Iridescent Bead Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Carved “Classical” Cameo.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Pearls & Red Serpentine Bead Necklace.. . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Pearl & Shell Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Neon Blue Apatite Multi-Strand Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Silver, Gemstone, Mother-of-Pearl Pendant. . . . . . . . . . 20
Opalite, Pearl & Mixed Bead Necklace.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Pearl, Jasper, & etc. Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Kyanite & Pearl Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Faceted Fluorite Bead Bangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Faceted Rutilated Quartz Pendant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Tiger-Eye Round Cab Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Pearl & Sterling Silver “Flower Petal” Earrings. . . . . . . 10
Pearl & Sterling Silver “Open Flower” Earrings.. . . . . . . 8
Small Hoop & B/W Glass Bead Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Simple Pearl and Silver Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Simple Round Hematite Bead Earrings.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Multicolor Ceramic (Flower Decoration) Earrings. . . . . . 2
Engraved Copper Earrings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Hematite Bead & Yellow Glass “Bone” Necklace. . . . . . 3
Spectacular Shell Pendant & Silver Chain Necklace. . . 13
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
13
Covellite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Pyrite in Shale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Smokey Quartz & Black Tourmaline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Schorl (Tourmaline) Crystals in Matrix.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Jamesonite, Pyrite & etc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Strontianite & etc. and Williamsite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Calcite on Dolomite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Large Citrine (Quartz) Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Corundum Crystal Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Conglomerate Nodule Sliced. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tetrahedrite & Sphalerite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
(2) Gemmy Zircons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
(3) Gemmy Green Tourmaline Rough.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Jasper Rough. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Quartz Crystal Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Labradorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Publications & Other Section
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
Arizona Mineralogical Record.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
(3) Rocks & Minerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
(2) Gems & Geology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Jade Figurine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
(3) Tektites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
MTA Subway Line Umbrella.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Full Sheet USA 10¢ Mineral Stamps.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks & (2) Scheelites.. . . . . . . 15
Amethyst & Agate Slice Oil Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Late Arrivals on the Evening of the Banquet
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
Metal Figurine on Pyrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Metal Figurine on Pyrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Wire Wrapping Jewelry Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Deep Purple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Cactus Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cactus Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
New AMNH Book (Gems by Harlow). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Total (WOW!)
$1,020
What the Heck Is This Thing on Mars?
By Ed Mazza
Collector Minerals, Thumbnails & Crystals Section
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
(3) Unopened geodes with Opened Specimens. . . . . . . . . 6
(3) Unopened geodes with Opened Specimens. . . . . . . . . 3
Lazurite Crystal in Marble & Lapis Specimen. . . . . . . . 21
Small Ruby in Feldspar Sphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Polished Ruby in Feldspar Nugget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Uvarovite Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Getchellite, Orpiment, Realgar Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chalcotrichite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Rubellite Tourmaline in Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Epidote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Epidote “Fan”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Autunite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Fabulous Complex Quartz “Point”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Goethite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A NASA image of Mars being passed around on social media
over the weekend has imaginations running wild.
The photo shows a stone formation in front of what may be a
kind of cave. Some say it looks a bit like a crab monster straight
out of a science fiction tale.
(Continues . . .)
14
Here’s a closer look:
But don’t worry, future missions to Mars are unlikely to
encounter any crab monsters.
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Director of the Center
for SETI Research, said he gets images showing formations such
as this one about once a week.
“Those that send them to me are generally quite excited, as
they claim that these frequently resemble SOMETHING you
wouldn’t expect to find on the rusty, dusty surface of the Red
Planet,” he said via email. “It’s usually some sort of animal, but
occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts. Maybe
they think there are cars on Mars.”
He said it’s really just a phenomenon called pareidolia, or the
brain’s ability to make shapes out of random objects – like seeing
animals in clouds.
“Far from being a vision defect, pareidolia has a lot of survival
value if you need to quickly spot predators in the jungle, for
instance,” he wrote.
He added:
“Recognizing a crab in a landscape filled with
wind-weathered rocks is no more surprising – nor more
significant – than seeing a winking face in a semi-colon
followed by a parenthesis. ;) “
That means that this, taken from the same image, isn’t a
Martian sand yeti – or maybe a very lost wampa – peeking out
from behind some rocks either:
November 2015
There may be no evidence for life on Mars – yet – but you can
do more than scan images to help the hunt for extraterrestrial
intelligence. UC Berkeley’s SETI@Home allows you to put your
computer’s spare processing power to work analyzing
narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space.
Source: Huffington Post 08/03/2015
Fall 2015 NYC Gem & Mineral Show
The Club’s newest publication (available ONLY on a CDROM), Minerals and Gems on Worldwide Postage Stamps, will
make its debut at this show. This CD contains 48 posters, from
Agate to Zircon, that can be printed at home or professionally,
poster-size. Find out if your favorite mineral or gem is represented!
Another much-anticipated product debut is a sturdy, garnetcolored, NYMC-imprinted, drawstring backpack. Buying an
using one of these will make it much easier for you to carry around
your purchases at the show safely!
Another Club publication you can purchase is Mitch
Portnoy’s NYMC Historic Stamp Album & Scrapbook. (This
book is nearly sold out! Don’t miss your chance!)
There is a lecture on each day of the Show. The specifics are
provided with mini-posters on page 11.
There will be free minerals or children (also donated by Tony
Nikischer) and some kind of fun activity for them as well.
Questions? Check out the detailed show information on our
website. Or email me and ask.
See You at the Show!
November 2015
NASA Discovers Liquid Salty Water Flowing
on Mars
By Amy Lynn
NASA teased us last week with the promise of a “major
science finding” regarding our planetary neighbor, Mars. Today
they delivered news of an exciting discovery – and no it’s not
Mark Watney or even little green men. Using data collected by the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), scientists have detected
evidence of salty water flowing on the surface of Mars.
These long streaks are inferred to have been formed by contemporary
flowing water. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Water is one of the key ingredients for life as we know it.
We’ve known for a while that Mars has frozen water at its poles,
and earlier this year the Curiosity rover detected the possibility of
salty water below the surface, but this is the first evidence for it
flowing on the surface.
During the warm seasons, temperatures on the Red Planet
reach about 250-300 Kelvins (-23 to 27 degrees Celsius, -10 to 80
degrees Fahrenheit) and in order for liquid water to survive (even
temporarily) on the surface of Mars today, it would have to contain
some salt. Both remote and in-situ investigations have shown that
various salts, such as perchlorates, sulfates, and chlorides are
present on the Martian surface. These salts can significantly lower
both the freezing point and the evaporation rate of water, and also
easily absorb moisture from the atmosphere.
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) – thin, dark streak-like gullies
seen creeping down the sides of craters – have been spotted by
MRO in low and mid-latitudes on the Red Planet. High-resolution
images from MRO’s HiRISE camera show that the RSL are
typically less than 5 meters (16 feet) wide, appear on slopes during
the warmer months, lengthen and fade away during the cooler
months. Scientists first proposed the idea that the RSL could be a
product of seasonal water flows back in 2007, but there was no
direct evidence to support that until now.
15
Spectral data from MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging
Spectrometer for Mars instrument (CRISM) observed four
different locations where the RSL are most extensive. The data
showed evidence of three different hydrated salts – magnesium
perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate – at all
four locations, indicating that salty water (also called brine) flows
are responsible for the RSL activity.
Scientists now know that salty water flowing downhill is
behind the RSL, but where does the water come from? There are
a few possibilities, but researchers have yet to narrow it down. The
water could form by the melting of surface or subsurface ice, but
the likelihood of near-surface ice around the equatorial region is
slim. Another possibility is the seasonal discharge of a local
aquifer, but also unlikely. Since the salts have the potential to
absorb moisture from the atmosphere through a process known as
deliquescence, that could be another possibility.
Here on Earth, in the Atacama Desert, we know that the
deliquescence of certain salts offers the only known refuge for
active microbial communities. If RSL form as a result of
deliquescence of perchlorate salts, they could have major
astrobiological implications.
The findings have been published in Nature Geosciences and
provide new insight into the current Martian hydrologic cycle.
Source: iflscience.com Sept. 28, 2015
Demand for Lithium Drives Innovation
By Joni Blecher
As the popularity of electric vehicles and hybrids from the
likes of Tesla and Toyota continues to increase, so does the
demand for lithium, a key element in the vehicles’ advanced
batteries. Lithium is a natural resource that’s often extracted from
rocks and salt lakes, with much of it coming from a handful of
suppliers in South America. So it’s only natural that researchers
are exploring new and innovative ways to increase production of
this vital element.
Tesla Motors is building its Gigafactory outside Sparks, Nevada to reduce
the cost of the batteries used in its cars. (Source: Tesla Motors)
One potential source is seawater, but as lithium exists in such
small concentrations in our oceans, finding a way to extract it
economically has been a major obstacle.
Tsuyoshi Hoshino, a scientist at Japan’s Atomic Energy
Agency’s Rokkasho Fusion Institute, has come up with a new way
to extract lithium from seawater using a dialysis machine with a
special membrane that allows only the element to pass through.
One of the more popular ways to obtain lithium from natural
resources is the brine method, which extracts Li from salt lakes in
enclosed valleys. But the process, while cost-efficient, can take up
to two years. The brine is pumped from an aquifer through a series
of evaporation ponds until it’s in a state where the lithium is free
of impurities and can be separated and put to use.
Hoshino’s method is years away from becoming commercially
viable, but he says it shows “good energy efficiency and is easily
scalable.”
16
Lithium is used in a variety of devices and products that we
use every day: heat-resistant ceramics and glass, polymers,
aluminum, and, of course, rechargeable batteries in smartphones
and laptops. And considering it has the highest electrical output per
unit weight, it’s absolutely crucial for the production of electric car
batteries.
As electric vehicle sales rise, so does demand for lithium.
According to a report from the Centre for Solar Energy and
Hydrogen Research, more than one million electric vehicles will
be on the road globally by the end of this year. This statistic speaks
to the findings in a 2015 report by Roskill, a consulting and
research firm, which predicts utilization of lithium will more than
double from 2012 to 2017.
With shortages of lithium predicted and demand for the
element growing, looking for new and cost-effective ways to
extract it from one of our largest natural resources certainly makes
sense.
Source: Huffington Post from September 24, 2015
Metallic Glass Alloys Could Be Stronger than
Steel but as Malleable as Putty
By Jonathan O’Callaghan
November 2015
The instruction manual works by predicting certain properties
of particular alloys, such as detecting structural defects that might
discourage the metal forming in a glass-like state. “With our new
instruction manual we can start to create many new useful metallic
glass-types and begin to understand the atomic fundamentals
behind their exceptional properties,” said Dr. Laws. “We will also
be able to engineer these materials on an atomic scale so they have
the specific properties we want.”
However, while this is all well and good, metallic glass
remains difficult and expensive to make. Its uses have been limited
to things like ejector pins in iPhones and watch springs, but if it
can be made cheaper – perhaps by finding new alloys using this
method – then it could be widely used in electronic devices,
batteries, and even spacecraft.
Source: Iflscience.com September 22, 2015
Perettiite: A New Mineral Discovery from Burma:
GRS Lab announced the discovery of a new mineral,
Perettiite-(Y) found in Burma (Myanmar).
Dr. Adolf Peretti, the named mineral’s discoverer, is head
gemologist and director of GRS Gemresearch Swisslab AG,
(Adligenswil, Switzerland).
Formula:Y2Mn 4FeSi 2B 8O 24
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Type Locality: Momeik Township, Kyaukme District, Shan
State, Burma (Myanmar)
Shown are magnesium-based metallic glass castings. Dr. Kevin
Laws/UNSW Australia.
Metallic glass alloys are ultra-strong materials that, when
heated, become as malleable as putty. They have a huge range of
uses, but finding out which are best has relied on trial and error
methods. However, researchers now say they have developed an
“instruction manual” to find the best ones.
The research, published in the journal Nature
Communications, by scientists from the University of New South
Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, could enable the vast
potential of these materials to be realized. “They have been
described as the most significant development in materials science
since the discovery of plastics more than 50 years ago,” said lead
author Dr. Kevin Laws from UNSW in a statement.
Metallic glass alloys have a highly disordered, glass-like
atomic structure, compared to regular metals, which are crystalline
and thus ordered when solid. Heating metallic glass allows it to be
molded akin to glass blowing, and certain alloys can be three times
stronger and harder than regular metals such as steel, making them
the toughest materials known.
Finding the best metallic glass alloys is difficult, though.
Discovering them has relied upon trial and error, so this new
method could prove invaluable. The team used a model to
successfully predict more than 200 new metallic glass alloys in the
past few years, using metals such as magnesium and silver. These
will now be studied to ascertain their various properties.
Perettiite included in phenakite
“This is one of the finest examples of collaborative endeavor
between gemologists and scientists in the world of mineralogical
discoveries. No wonder no one had identified it yet.” Dr. Peretti
said. “It needed the utmost effort from the world's most
renowned mineralogists.”
Sources: Mindat.org, www.gemresearch.ch
Dr. Peretti in his laboratory
November 2015
17
Date
Event
Location
November 11
Meeting at 6:45
Special Lecture: Fluorescence (H. Heitner) &
IYL Special Demo (R. Bostwick / T. Hecht)
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
“Synthetic Minerals”
January 13, 2016
Meeting at 6:45
February 10
Meeting at 6:45
March 9
Meeting at 6:45
April 13
Meeting at 6:45
May 11
Meeting at 6:45
Special Lecture: Zackry Wiegand (Artist) –
“Subtle Bodies - The Art of Light & Minerals”
Date
Event
Location
October 23-25
Austin, Texas
Bulletin Article Contest Results
November 7-8
Stamford Society Gem,
Eastern Greenwich Civic Center,
Old Greenwich, Connecticut
Kids Activities, Door Prizes, Train Access
from NYC
November 14-15
March 5-6, 2016
April 8-10
NY/NJ Mineral, Gem &
Fossil Show
New Jersey Expo Center, Edison,
New Jersey
July 27- Aug 1
Albany, Oregon
October 21-23
Rochester, New York
November 12-13
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Editor & Archivist
Membership
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
Mark Kucera
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
e-mail: [email protected] . . . . . . . . . . .
(212) 580-1343
(646) 737-3776
(212) 874-0525
(212) 927-3355
(212) 580-1343
(914) 423-8360
(914) 834-6792
(718) 745-1876
(718) 332-0764
Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: Howard Heitner — “Fluorescence: History, Mechanism & Applications”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder
The
BULLETIN
OF THE NEW YORK MINERALOGICAL CLUB, INC
Volume 129 No. 12
December 2015
JOHN SANFACON
SHOW REVIEW
DEALER
DONATIONS
Show Review
See page 1
GORNITZ WINS
BRIGHT COLORS
December 9, 2015
TUCSON
Man-Made
Minerals & More
DUES ARE DUE
America’s Oldest Gem & Mineral Club
Founded 1886

Incorporated 1937
Founded 1886
Volume 129, No. 12
December 9th Meeting:
John Sanfaçon: “Man-Made
Minerals & More”
Review: Fall 2015 NYC Gem,
Mineral, Jewelry & Fossil Show
By Mitch Portnoy
John Sanfaçon is one of the most popular
meeting lecturers in captivity! In the
recent past he has lectured to us about
Agate (2007), Jasper (2010), REEs (2011),
Russian Lapidary Treasures (2012) and
Crown Jewels (2014).
At this highly anticipated lecture, he
will bring specimens and the testing tools
used to tell diamonds from non-diamonds
and diamonds from moissanite. He will
also bring synthetic carborundum (when
it’s facetable, it’s moissanite) as well as
basalt fiber, a synthetic which is superior
in every way to the six carcinogenic
asbestos minerals. The father of one of his
students owns the company which makes
this wonder material out of humble basalt
from the Watchung mountains right
nearby in New Jersey.
says “Status: 2015”, you owe your 2016 dues.
Please take the time now to mail in your dues in order to
prevent uninterrupted delivery of your bulletin. A handy
form appears on page 12. Dues are $25 for individual,
$35 for family. Mail to: Membership Coordinator, N.Y.
NYC, NY 10024-0077.
December 2015
Let me begin this review by going
straight to the bottom line – this was the
best show we have hosted in virtually every
important category of analysis!
High Attendance: This show had the
highest attendance since we began keeping
records about twenty years ago. This
happily led to . . .
Excellent Dealer Sales: Every dealer
(with one exception) said that they had had
among the highest show sales EVER at this
NYC Gem & Mineral Show! Most could
not believe how large and varied their sales
had been and were dead tired by the end of
the show on Sunday evening. Several
dealers even said that if a dealer had not
made money at this show, they only have
themselves to blame. This joyous optimism
surely caused all the. . .
Awesome Dealer Donations: every
dealer seemed to “reward” the club for their
profitable returns by going beyond their
usual levels of generosity to us. We have no
direct commercial involvement in this
show. Tony Nikischer (Excalibur
Minerals) gives us an expensive booth
location in exchange for helping in the
promotion of the show, providing lectures,
kids events, etc. We do ask each of the
dealers for a donation in kind for items that
we can put into our June Benefit Auction,
Banquet Silent Auction, Special Sale in
January, meeting raffles, etc.
Look at the dealer donation details later
in the bulletin – I hope you are as impressed
as I was by these items! But the Club also
benefitted by signing up. . .
Numerous New Members: We
enrolled the greatest number of new
members and their families (10) since Tony
began sponsoring two shows a year in New
York City. And we almost ran out of room
on my recording sheet entering all the
members who were renewing their
membership in the Club for 2016! Perhaps
it was this overall activity as well as the
visual appeal of this show’s club booth that
led to . . .
Amazing Club Product Sales: The
floaty gemstone pens continue to be the
most popular items we have ever sold. In
fact, from this one show we have sold
enough to cover the cost of the entire order
of pens we have in stock. And we likely
have enough for the next year. In addition
we sold many of the note card sets (lots of
compliments on them!), educational CDROMs, 2016 antique prints calendars,
drawstring backpacks and other
publications. Indeed, my load coming home
after the show was remarkably light! What
was not light, however, was the . . .
Lecture Attendance: Both lectures
(Howard Heitner, Intro to Minerals and
Ted Zirnite, Manhattan Mineral
Collecting) were virtually SRO! We thank
them both most profusely! And I also wish
to thank all the. . .
Enthusiastic Show Volunteers: This
includes Rich Rossi, Roland Scal, Anna
Schumate, Diane Beckman, Mark
Kucera, and Vivien Gornitz. I also want
to commend all the members of the NYMC
who attended the Fall 2015 NYC Gem &
Mineral Show and made this such a
successful and memorable event.
Issue Highlights
Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
AFMS 2015 Contest Results. . . . . . . 3
EFMLS - 2016 BEAC Submissions. . 4
5000+ Minerals!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Cold Molecules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
New Ice Age Coming?. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Fall Show Dealer Donations.. . . . . . . 6
Early Rising Continents. . . . . . . . . . . 7
Lightening Alters Rocks.. . . . . . . . . . 7
The 100: Bright Colors. . . . . . . . . . . 8
Topics in Gemology: Tucson 2015. . 9
End of the Universe?. . . . . . . . . . . . 10
New Magnetic Metals!. . . . . . . . . . . 11
Five Catastrophes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Free G&G Set!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Earth’s Core Birth Date. . . . . . . . . . 13
Jade (Book Review). . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Pink Event.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
New! NYMC Doodles!. . . . . . . . . . 15
2
By Mitch Portnoy
I am still recovering from the Fall 2015
NYC Mineral Show frenzy but I thought I
would end the successful NYMC year with
these important notices:
Some 2016 Calendars Remain
November 11, 2015
Attendance: 50+
President Mitch Portnoy presided
Announcements:

Although most were distributed at the
Show, if you still want one (while the really
limited supplies last, let me know ASAP
perhaps when you send in your 2016 dues?)
Also: any ideas for the theme for the 2017
NYMC calendar?
AFMS Contest Results – see next page!
I hope everyone is as thrilled as I am by
these national contest results.

NYMC “Doodles”
I hope most of you have been noticing and
enjoying the changing graphics (i.e.,
NYMC doodles) on the Home page of our
new website. Suggestions are welcome
although I admit I have already created
nearly 175 of them! (See page 15.)
End-of-Year Awards
For the first time in many decades, we will
be distributing End-of-Year Awards at the
December 2015 meeting. Some are serious
and some comic, but all are certainly
sincere. See you at the next meeting!
Advantages
Early Arrival
Pristine Condition
Full-Color Version with Hyperlinks
Electronic Storage
Club Saves Money
Go Green!
Requires
([email protected])
Adobe Reader (Free)
Optional
The new full-color NYMC logo was
presented.
The regular monthly raffle was held.
There was a brief discussion about the
October 2015 banquet.
The new NYMC website “doodles”
were announced and a few examples
shown.
The availability of the NYMC’s videos
on YouTube were shown.
The incipient Twitter page
“@NYMineralogical” was shown.
The day’s and month’s historical
events were presented.
The final IYL game, about
pleochroism, was played.
Members were reminded that 2016
dues are now due.
In December we will have “End of
Year Awards” given out for the first
time.
Details about the upcoming Fall NYC
Gem & Mineral Show were provided.
Upcoming NYMC events through
February 2016 were presented.
Special Program
Richard Bostwick
“Fluorescence Demonstration”
Howard Heitner
“Fluorescence:
History, Mechanisms, Applications”
In tribute to the International Year of
Light, November’s meeting featured a twopart demonstration and lecture on
fluorescence, a topic of great appeal to
mineral collectors, as well as one of
importance in many branches of science.
Richard Bostwick, vice-president of
the Franklin Mineral Museum, long-time
fluorescent mineral collector, and former
miner, began by showing the strikingly
different color effects produced by different
wavelengths of ultraviolet (UV) light on the
same mineral. Some of the minerals even
showed phosphorescence, continuing to
glow for several seconds after the UV light
was shut off. UV light can even change the
color of a mineral (temporarily at least).
Sodalite from Greenland, a dull beige color
(in contrast to the usual blue) turns a vivid
reddish pink upon exposure to UV! Not all
such optical effects involve UV light. For
December 2015
example, sphalerite and quartz exhibit
triboluminescence—the ability to emit light
after being struck with a hard object, or
under pressure.
Howard Heitner, retired chemist and
mineral historian, delved further into the
scientific principles and uses of fluorescence.
The term “fluorescence”, he pointed out, is
derived from the mineral fluorite, even
though not all specimens of fluorite
demonstrate this phenomenon. In most cases,
fluorescence is caused by the presence of
impurities. The phenomenon is by no means
confined to minerals. Many artificial
materials will fluoresce, such as some
detergents, paints, dyed fabrics, etc.
However, most radioactive minerals, such as
those containing uranium, will always
fluoresce. He explained that UV, like visible
light, x-rays, infrared, and radio waves are all
parts of the electromagnetic spectrum,
differing only in wavelength and frequency.
When electrons at rest in the “ground state”
absorb certain wavelengths of light, they are
kicked up into a higher energy “exited state”.
As they drop back to lower energy levels,
they emit light with wavelengths
corresponding to the energy difference. This
is the basis of most spectroscopic methods,
and is used to identify specific elements
present.
Stokes Law (1852, named after its
discoverer, George Stokes) states that the
wavelength of emitted light (visible light, in
the case of fluorescence) is always longer
than that of the incident light (UV). Einstein
went a step further by proving that the energy
of light is directly proportional to its
frequency and inversely proportional to its
wavelength, a discovery which earned him
the Nobel Prize. This is the basis of the
“photo-electric effect” that has numerous
applications today. Thus, short wavelength
radiation (like x-rays, UV) possesses more
energy than longer wavelength “light”, like
visible, infra-red or microwave.
Shorter wavelength radiation is also
more penetrating, a fact discovered by
Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895, when he
experimented with the fluorescent effects on
barium platinoncyanide-painted screens in
cathode tubes. Exposing his wife’s hand to
these mysterious emanations, he took the
first x-ray photograph of her bones. The
medical profession was quick to adopt this
new technology! Fluorescence in modern
technology is found in such devices as CT
scanners, digital x-ray cameras, scintillation
counters (for detecting radioactivity),
fluorescent bulbs, and in x-ray fluorescence
used for chemical analysis.
(Continues next page)
December 2015
Howard went on to describe some of the early x-ray tubes
made by Thomas Edison and Michael Pupin, and other early UV
lamps used for mineral fluorescence. UV light comes in handy,
not only as an aid in identifying minerals, but also in detecting
counterfeit bills, paintings, and artefacts. Fluorescence proved
useful in prospecting for scheelite during World War II.
Prompted by a shortage of the strategic element tungsten,
geologists used UV lamps at night to seek scheelite, which
fluoresces a pale blue. While only a small percent of diamonds
fluoresce under UV, all diamonds fluoresce under x-rays. In
modern diamond mines, sorting of the gems has been automated
by beaming x-rays on diamond ore and picking out the
gemstones as the ore moves along a conveyor belt. No mineral
collection is complete without some of the colorful fluorescent
minerals from Franklin, New Jersey. While the mines have been
closed for decades, the dumps are still accessible to collectors,
and a large variety of fluorescent specimens can still be found.
So, happy hunting!
Members in the News

Naomi Sarna has won a variety of gem awards. See page 6
for details.
Vivien Gornitz presented a paper about NYC and higher
sea levels at the 2015 Geological Society of America
Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland in late October.
George Harlow also presented several papers at this event;
Vivien attended one about gem materials.
Branko Deljanin will be presenting a program about large
Russian synthetic diamonds at the NAJA conference in
Tucson in 2016.
Congratulations to Vivien Gornitz whose booklet, Introduction
to Mineral Crystallography (from 2014), won the First Place
Trophy in the 2015 American Federation of Mineralogical
Societies’ Bulletin Editor’s Contest in the Special Publications
category. (CD-ROM still available!)
Congratulations to Mitch Portnoy whose booklet, Stamp
Album of the NYMC (from 2014), won the Second Place
Societies’ Bulletin Editor’s Contest in the Special Publications
category. (Book and CD-ROM still available!)
Congratulations to Diana Jarrett whose 3-part article,
Uncovering Fabergé (from 2014), won the Third Place
Societies’ Bulletin Editor’s Contest in the Advanced Articles
category.
And Coming Next Month . . .
Toni Akhibi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abuja, Nigeria
Mrs. Dale L. Brown.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bronx, NY
Catherine Corwin & Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn, NY
Tina Di. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flushing, NY
Joshua Dudley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Montclair, NJ
Gary Golden & Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn, NY
Alexandra Krummenacker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glen Cove, NY
Mohammad Qammer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Islip, NY
Rafael Ramirez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Newark, NJ
Roman Rudinskiy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn, NY
And welcome back to . . .
Sivia Phoenix.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn, NY
3
4
2016 EFMLS/AFMS Bulletin Article Contest
Submissions
The following 2015 works were submitted to the EFMLS for
judging in the 2016 Contest. Regional results will be announced at
the EFMLS convention at the end of October 2016 although we
will actually know national results, if any, from the AFMS even
earlier in late July 2016.
Category: Advanced Articles
Ice: The Mineral that Shapes the Earth by Vivien Gornitz
(June 2015)
Garnet (3 parts) by Vivien Gornitz (Sept/Oct/Nov 2015)
Category: Regular Articles
A Charmed Life by Diana Jarrett (July/August 2015)
Something to Wine About by Diana Jarrett (June 2015)
NYMC Members on Postage Stamps by Mitch Portnoy
(September 2015)
Category: Written Features
Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees by Mitch Portnoy
(April 2015)
Pink Possibilities by Diana Jarrett (February 2015)
The Blues by Bill Shelton (February 2015)
Category: Special Publications
Oliver Sacks Memorial – Special Bulletin of the New York
Mineralogical Club by Mitch Portnoy, Editor
Minerals on Worldwide Postage Stamps by Mitch Portnoy
(CD-ROM Only)
You Don't Want to Be this Type of Perfectionist
By Carolyn Gregoire
It’s one thing to expect the best from yourself. But it’s a
completely different thing to expect the best from everyone around
you.
Perfectionists, though often high-achieving and highly
motivated individuals, can set almost impossibly lofty goals for
themselves. Psychologists have linked perfectionism to
procrastination, depression and anxiety, compulsive behaviors and
even poor physical health.
New research suggests perfectionists aren’t all created equal
– and some types may be susceptible to other negative traits.
A study published this month in the Journal of
Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment identified a type of
perfectionism that’s characterized by setting unreasonable
standards not for oneself but for others.
“Other-oriented perfectionism is a ‘dark’ form of
perfectionism positively associated with narcissistic, antisocial and
uncaring personality characteristics,” Joachim Stoeber, a
psychologist at the University of Kent and the study’s lead author,
wrote in a statement.
Other-oriented perfectionists are distinct from the two other
types of perfectionists, which we tend to hear about more often.
December 2015
Self-oriented perfectionists have unreasonably high personal
standards and expect themselves to be perfect, while socially
prescribed perfectionists believe that they need to be perfect in
order to be accepted by others.
In previous studies, Stoeber and colleagues have shown that
“dark” perfectionists are often judgmental and manipulative of
others, and struggle to maintain healthy relationships.
For the new study, the same researchers asked 229 university
students about their sense of humor, perfectionistic traits and social
behaviors.
They found that while self-oriented perfectionists tend to have
a sense of humor that enhances their social interactions,
other-oriented perfectionists display an aggressive sense of humor
and a tendency to tell jokes at the expense of others.
Unsurprisingly, they also show little concern for social norms.
While you may not relate to the description of the dark
perfectionist, many of us are overly critical of others to a certain
degree.
“Most people have medium levels of other-oriented
perfectionism, a few have high levels and a few low levels,”
Stoeber told The Huffington Post. “The same goes for other forms
of perfectionism.”
The takeaway? If you’re going to be a perfectionist, try to
focus those sky-high standards on yourself – and spare the rest of
us.
“The focus of perfectionists plays an important role in
determining how prosocial or antisocial they are,” the study’s
authors write. “If perfectionists focus on themselves, they can be
prosocial. If they focus on others – whether they have
perfectionistic expectations of others or they believe others have
perfectionistic expectations of them – they tend to be antisocial.”
Source: Huffingtonpost.com May 22, 2015
Earth’s Mineral Total Count Passes 5,000!
After more than two centuries of investigation by
mineralogists worldwide, the total number of discrete, currently
accepted mineral species has passed the 5,000 mark. When the
German mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817)
published his “Last Mineral System” in 1817, he listed just 317
different mineral species that were known to exist at that time.
Over the following years, some of those were discarded or refined
and new ones were added to the list in an ongoing process.
By January of 1969, Michael Fleischer of the U. S. Geological
Survey (original author of the Glossary of Mineral Species, now in
its 11th edition) estimated the total at 1,950. As of January 2014,
the official count by the International Mineralogical Association
was 4,684, as published in the 11th edition of the Glossary. Since
that time, 136 new species have been published. If another 226
accepted but “questionable” species are included in the list, the
total reaches 5,046 (rruff.info/ima). Because the IMA chooses to
count them, Glossary author Malcolm Back will be including the
“questionable” species in the 12th edition, scheduled for 2018.
Are there likely to be very many more discovered? Definitely.
Robert Hazen, in a forthcoming article in the Mineralogical
Record, uses complex statistical analyses to estimate that roughly
1,500 more unknown species exist in nature and are waiting to be
discovered. And that number may increase if new and more
sophisticated analytical instruments are developed in the future. So
at this point in history we are in no danger of running out of new
minerals!
Source: Mineralogical Record, July/August 2015
December 2015
Scientists Create World's Coldest Molecules
It doesn’t get much cooler than this.
Physicists at MIT have created what may be world’s coldest
chemically stable molecules, chilling sodium potassium gas to half
of one millionth of a degree above absolute zero (defined as minus
273 degrees Celsius or minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0 on the
Kelvin scale used by many scientists).
Researchers have successfully cooled a gas of sodium potassium (NaK)
molecules to a temperature of 500 nanokelvin. In this artist's illustration, the
smaller sphere on the left represents a sodium atom and the larger sphere on the
right a potassium atom. | Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT
“Now we’re at 500 nanokelvins, which is already fantastic, we
love it,” Dr. Martin Zwierlein, one of the physicists, said in a
written statement. “A factor of 10 colder or so, and the music starts
playing.”
Only chemically unstable molecules – which decay quickly –
had been cooled to such a low temperature before, according to
Zwierlein. His team’s feat breaks the previous record for coldest
chemically stable molecules, which was set last year by a team of
British, French and Austrian scientists, by a factor of at least 10.
Scientists create such “supercold” molecules in order to
observe exotic forms of matter and quantum processes, according
to Live Science.
Among the exotic forms of matter the researchers hope to see
are so-called “superfluid crystals.” As Zwierlein explained in the
statement, these crystalline forms “feel no friction, which is totally
bizarre. This has not been observed so far, but predicted. We might
not be far from seeing these effects, so we’re all excited.”
And ultracold molecules may also be used in quantum
computing.
“The molecules could be used as quantum bits, where ‘0’ and
‘1’ is robustly encoded in the rotation of the molecules,” Zwierlien
told The Huffington Post in an email. “Quantum computation itself
would be extremely important for cryptography and to solve
certain types of problems that simply take impossibly long on a
‘classical’ computer.”
The molecules had the strongest “dipole moments” (arrows) -- imbalances in the
distribution of charge across the molecules, which lead to magnet-like interactions
-- ever observed in ultracold molecules.
5
For the research, Zwierlien and his colleagues used one set of
lasers to cool sodium and potassium atoms separately, and trap
them. Then they applied a magnetic field to get the atoms to form
a weak bond.
“It’s like tuning your radio to be in resonance with some
station,” Zwierlein said in the statement. “These atoms start to
vibrate happily together, and form a bound molecule.”
To strengthen that bond, the researchers used a technique
involving another set of lasers – a high-energy and a low-energy
beam – to “suck away” heat from the molecules and bring them to
their lowest vibrational and rotational states.
They observed that the molecules were stable for around 2.5
seconds, which is considered a relatively long lifetime. And they
were far less reactive than molecules at room temperature, tending
not to collide with other molecules around them.
Next, the team hopes to cool molecules to an even lower
temperature, study the interactions between them, and learn more
about the limits on their lifetime.
A paper describing the research was published on May 18,
2015 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Earth Heading for ‘Mini Ice Age’ Within 15
Years
River Thames could freeze over in 2030s when Northern
Hemisphere faces bitterly cold winters, scientists say
By Dan Hyde
The earth is 15 years from a “mini ice-age” that will cause
bitterly cold winters during which rivers such as the Thames freeze
over, scientists have predicted.
London policemen on ice skates on the frozen River Thames circa 1900 Photo:
Getty Images
Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have
created a new model of the Sun’s activity which they claim
produces “unprecedentedly accurate predictions”.
They said fluid movements within the Sun, which are thought
to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a
way that temperatures will fall dramatically in the 2030s.
Solar activity will fall by 60 per cent as two waves of fluid
“effectively cancel each other out”, according to Prof Valentina
Zharkova.
In a presentation to the National Astronomy Meeting in
Llandudno, she said the result would be similar to freezing
conditions of the late 17th century.
“[In the cycle between 2030 and around 2040] the two waves
exactly mirror each other – peaking at the same time but in
opposite hemispheres of the Sun,” she said.
6
“Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel
each other.
“We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder
minimum’”.
Maunder minimum, indicating low Sunspot activity, was the
name given to the period between 1645 and 1715, when Europe
and North America experienced very cold winters.
In England during this “Little Ice Age”, River Thames frost
fairs were held. In the winter of 1683-84 the Thames froze over for
seven weeks, during which it was “passable by foot”, according to
historical records.
Prof Zharkova said scientists had known about one dynamo
caused by convecting fluids deep within the Sun, but her research
appeared to have uncovered another.
“We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs,
originating in two different layers in the Sun’s interior,” she said.
“They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years,
although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in
time.
“Over the cycle, the waves fluctuate between the northern and
southern hemispheres of the Sun. Combining both waves together
and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found
that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97 per cent.”
This had helped create a picture of what would happen in the
2030s.
“Effectively, when the waves are approximately in phase, they
can show strong interaction, or resonance, and we have strong
solar activity,” Prof Zharkova said.
“When they are out of phase, we have solar minimums. When
there is full phase separation, we have the conditions last seen
during the Maunder minimum, 370 years ago.”
December 2015
AYS International, Floral Park, New York
Jade & Silver Pendant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
Bary Gems, Inc., Hollis, New York
Silver & Black Onyx Earrings.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NA
John Betts Fine Minerals, New York City, NY
Mottramite (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mexico
China South Seas, Inc., New York City, NY
Wide Variety of Jewelry (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
The Crystal Circle, Cincinnati, Ohio (!!!)
Selection of Minerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Selection of Polished Gems.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Selection of Lapidary Arts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
The Essence, Northport, New York
Smithsonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Mexico
Green Petrified Wood (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SW USA
Excalibur Mineral Corp, Charlottesville, Virginia
(14) Worldwide Minerals (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Gems Art Studio, Brooklyn, NY & Moscow, Russia
Selection of Russian Minerals.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russia
Great Opals LLC, Raleigh, North Carolina
Opal Pendant (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ethiopia/USA
Highland Rock & Fossil, Highland Park, New Jersey (!!!)
Mounted Picture Jasper.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
Selection of Fossils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Selection of Carvings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Khyber Gemstones, Lyndhurst, New York
Lapis Rough Specimen (!!!). . . . . . . . Afghanistan/Pakistan
Mahalo Minerals, Takoma Park, Maryland
Huge Apophyllite/Quartz (!!!).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Malachite & Gems of Africa, Rochester, New York
Polished Malachite Egg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Congo
Margola Corp, Englewood, New Jersey
Gorgeous Rough/Polished Labradorite (!!!). . . Madagascar
Raj Minerals, Carteret, New Jersey
Polished Moss Agate Bowl (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India
Rocko Minerals & Jewelry, Margaretville, New York
Barite?Marcasite (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Locality
Somethings, New Milford, New Jersey
Huge Selection (50) of Pendants (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Selection of Necklaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misc
Howard Schlansker, Marshfield, Massachusetts
Huge Green Fluorite (!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . China
Please note that I have indicated with a “!!!” when a donation
is especially impressive (and appreciated). Note above how many
of the entries have this next to them! – Mitch

Expert Gem Carver Update
Ice floes fill the Hudson River as the Lower Manhattan skyline is seen during the
‘Polar vortex’ January 2015 in New York
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk from July 11, 2015
Dealer Donations from the Fall 2015 Mineral Show
Every dealer at the New York City Gem & Mineral Show expressed their
thanks to us with a donation of a mineral, gem, publication, piece of
jewelry, lapidary art object, etc. These items will (for the most part) be
offered at the June 2016 Benefit Auction. Some will be offered next month
at the Special Sale in January 2016. – Mitch

Amazon Imports
Opal (Large!!!). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ethiopia
Aurora Mineral Corp, Freeport, New York
Malachite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Congo
Naomi Sarna’s complex rutilated quartz was a finalist in the
world's most important gem carving competition, the German
Idar-Oberstein Awards. Plus,
Lapidary Journal just issued their
2015 GEMMEYS book with eleven
photos of her pieces.
She is also very pleased to report
that she just won Best Use of Pearls
for the second time in a row, and that
her colorful large white gold Pink
Petal Brooch (pictured here) won a
Gem Diva Award! The awards will
be given in February of 2016 in Tucson. This now bring her total
of AGTA awards to 18!
December 2015
The Continents Rose Above Earth’s Oceans
Way Earlier Than We Thought
7
bottom of the oceans today. It is still highly debated on how
continents that were submerged in the oceans before 3 billion years
ago formed,” he said in the email. “We now intend to conduct
further research on this highly debated topic.”
Geoscience on June 22, 2015.
Lightning Strikes Can Alter Rock at the Atomic
Level
A visualization of Earth’s continents using satellite data collected in October, 2004.
| Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory
The Earth’s thick continental crust – the rocky stuff that
makes up the land masses on which we live – may have risen from
the oceans much earlier in our planet’s history than scientists
thought.
Previous studies suggested that the crust surfaced within the
past 2.5 billion years. But a new study indicates that they emerged
some 500 million years earlier. Talk about old!
“There is increasing evidence from a number of studies that
big changes were taking place at circa 3 billion years ago, and a
number of people have argued that plate tectonics may have started
at around that time,” Dr. Bruno Dhuime, a geochemist at the
University of Bristol in England and co-author of the study, told
The Huffington Post in an email. “It is consistent that the
continents emerged at that time.”
For the study, the researchers scoured databases of previous
analyses on more than 13,000 rock samples taken from the
continental crust. In these analyses, the researchers took a close
look at the chemistry and the ages of the rocks.
Based on that data, the researchers concluded that the chunks
of crust must have emerged around 3 billion years ago -- and the
buoyant nature of the rocks would have allowed them to rise high
above what is now known as the oceanic crust (or seafloor), Live
Science reported.
A cross-section infographic of some of Earth’s layers, depicting the continental
crust (1), the oceanic crust (2), and the upper mantle (3).
Dhuime noted in the email that what happened in the time
before the continental crust’s debut remains a mystery.
“Before continents emerged we assume that much of the Earth
was covered in basaltic crust, much like the crust we find at the
By Josh L Davis
When lightning with a temperature of at least 1,800°C
(3,272°F) strikes a silica-rich patch of ground, the intense heat can
melt the silica to form glassy tube-like structures known as
fulgurites. Now, researchers have found that when lightning strikes
solid rock, it not only melts the surface, but can actually cause the
rock to change on an atomic level, creating parallel structures
within the rock.
It was originally thought that the only natural event to be able
to create such structures, called shock lamellae, were meteorite
impacts. As such, when scientists previously observed these rock
alterations, they were often assumed to be indicators of meteorite
strikes.
“Most geologists are careful; they don’t just use one
observation,” says Reto Gieré, who co-authored the paper
published in American Mineralogist. “But this is a good reminder
to always use multiple
observations to draw big
conclusions, that there are
multiple mechanisms that can
result in a similar effect.”
When rock is struck by
lightning, it often melts the
surface and results in a black
shiny “glaze,” similar to the
glassy fulgurites created when
the ground is hit. But Gieré and
his team decided to take
samples and then cut thin slices
so they could look at them
under a transmission electron
microscope, enabling them to
examine the samples at the Lightning strikes create a “glassy” layer
on the rock it hits.
atomic level.
They found that due to the
lightning’s heat vaporizing the rock's surface, the shiny black layer
was actually incredibly porous. Furthermore, this outer layer of the
rock lacked any crystalline structure, consistent with it having been
melted. But when they then looked under the surface layer, they
found something else: a set of straight parallel lines, more
normally associated with the shock lamellae created by meteorite
strikes.
The formation of the shock lamellae is thought to occur when
the crystal structure of quartz is “pushed over,” or deformed, by a
large wave of pressure. They reckon that it takes a pressure of
more than 10 gigapascals, or as the authors explain, a force
roughly 20 million times greater than that of a boxer’s punch, in
order to form the lamellae.
“I think the most exciting thing about this study is just to see
what lightning can do,” explained Gieré. “To see that lightning
literally melts the surface of a rock and changes crystal structures,
to me, is fascinating.”
Source: http://www.iflscience.com from August 6, 2015
8
December 2015
Bright Colors
I can write pages on all five species presented in this month’s
column. For a collector they all matter since availability is fair or
better and all will brighten most any display. According to
mindat.org, here are the locality numbers for this group: Proustite
– 698; Pyrargyrite – 1,300; Pyromorphite – 1,510; Mimetite –
993; and Vanadinite – 605.
The first two are the least common and, unfortunately, rather
expensive members of this group. For classic localities, one should
consider the examples given here. Proustite and pyrargyrite are
especially noted from Andreasbrg, Freiburg and Pribram as well
as Bolivia, Chile and Mexico. U.S. localities include Colorado,
Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico. Cobalt, Ontario is also important.
Pyromorphite, with the most given localities in the group, is noted
from Ems, Pribram, Beresovsk, Cumberland and Leadhills. U.S.
localities include Phoenixville, PA and Idaho. Mimetite can be
found coming from Tsumeb; Australia is another possible choice.
Mexico is famous as well. Vanadinite can be found from Morocco
and Africa amongst other worldwide localities. U.S. mimetite
localities are very common in New Mexico and Arizona. I have
found Morocco to be a very prolific source and one could buy as
many as one wants with ease. It may have the fewest overall
localities, but it seems to be the most available.
Proustite from Germany
Pyrargyrite from Mexico
Color is a major concern of mineral collectors and I suggest
buying the brightest, pure shade you can find. For example,
vanadinite from Morocco is often an unpleasant hue with orange
and/or brown mixed with red. Get yourself an excellent pure red
specimen. They occur on black matrix and, as such, can be very
dramatic. The case lighting will affect the appearance so pay
attention when selecting case lights for your samples. As some of
you may know, red is a scantily represented color in the mineral
kingdom. The very best proustites can be a vivid red but exposure
to light may darken them so keep that in mind. Small crystals with
excellent color have been recently available from Morocco but
large, excellent crystals are very rare. Chile produced some of the
best pieces; these will likely cost a lot!
I do not cover micromounts much in my articles but here we
can find affordable representatives of most all the 100 species in
this series. You can find modest pyromorphite examples from MA
and PA with a little luck even today. In the past, CT produced
examples at Canton and Thomaston (pyromorphite) but mostly
micro sized crystals. A cursory glance suggests some, and perhaps
all of these 5 species can be found in any size range. The last three
are likely to be more moderately priced.
A couple years back, I helped prepare and sell about 30 large
boxes of mimetite. They were white to clear, mostly small crystals;
all were on dark matrix from Mexico. Hundreds of samples were
sold; the market seems to have absorbed them all; this is actually
a typical circumstance. Samples were highly lustrous and glistened
when placed under any type of light. You may already have one in
your collection.
Pyromorphite from Idaho
Mimetite from Mexico
Some minerals seem to be stellar examples of misdirection,
etc. and, as such, present a collector with perplexing problems;
noteworthy might be turquoise. Rarely have I encountered obvious
fraudulent specimens within this group under consideration here.
I have seen pink fluorite and spessartine samples where additional
small crystals were glued onto the matrix to provide a “better”
specimen. None of this has, so far, been seen with these species. In
the event a specimen looks too amazing to believe, examine it with
care for obvious glued connections. A black light may be useful in
this respect. Much has been said regarding fakes and frauds before
– you can check on the Internet for a detailed report on this topic.
Incidentally, all of the 5 species are good indicators of potential
valuable ore deposits. Proustite and pyrargyrite are often
associated with silver deposits worldwide. Pyromorphite is found
with lead and even zinc deposits but it only contains lead.
Mimetite, which is noted for lead, also contains arsenic. Finally, as
the very name suggests, vanadinite will contain vanadium; it also
has lead in its formula. Generally, we would consider vanadinite
as a source of vanadium and a minor lead ore.
Vanadinite from Morocco
December 2015
9
Topics in Gemology
her over the years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at [email protected].
What Tucson Tells Us
Every year the faithful and the curious stampede to the dusty
southwest town of Tucson, Arizona in search of what’s new, what’s
really old and what’s just plain odd. Tucson has played host to the
world’s wildest gem and mineral bazaar for decades. When trying
to explain it to those who’ve never gone, one falls woefully short
of doing justice to this unique jamboree.
The legendary souk began back in the 1954 with a small group
of rock hounds who set up a freebie mineral display at a local
elementary school. Though making it available to anyone who
would come, they had little hopes of outsiders taking interest in
their shoe boxes full of rocks. But take off it did.
Selection of HUGE Quartz Geodes and Cathedrals, Mostly from Brazil
What Are You Looking For?
Today, the city of Tucson’s personality is defined by these shows
that have exploded from such humble beginnings. This is the place
where haute-couture designers find their once in a lifetime Kashmir
sapphire the size of a quail egg. High volume manufacturers
negotiate with Brazilian, African and East Asian dealers hawking
deep quantities of colorful stones cut overseas. Need a fossilized
dinosaur egg? Check. How about an amethyst-bearing geode taller
than you? No problem. And this time some ambitious dealers even
lugged in huge petrified wood with polished top surfaces so big,
they were styled as cocktail tables and sculpture stands.
For the colored stone trade in particular, a couple of things
contribute to the overall vibe at Tucson each year. First, the
economic climate dominates the pervasive mood of the focus
shows. The hubs are the AGTA Gem Fair held at the Tucson
Convention Center, and the GJX (Gem and Jewelry Exchange)
bustling across the road in billowy white tents that seem to go on
forever. Secondly, gemstone trends that are revealed set the pace
for what merchants will be promoting everywhere for the following
season.
Tucson 2015
This year, veteran dealers expressed a mixed response to their
inventory’s sales. Holiday business was less than stellar for many
retailers. While the effects of the economic free fall of a few years
back are in the rear view mirror for retailers, there lingers
trepidation about where we are headed given the precarious global
vagaries. Smaller exhibitors selling classic sapphire, zircon, and
topaz in the outlying shows were happy to undercut their
competition who had laid out big bucks for space in the
convention center and nearby tents.
Those at the epicenter of the major events report that their
buyers knew exactly what budget they had this year and spent not
a penny more. So their top goods zipped out of their stock in the
first two days of the show. Pearl vendors weren’t about to let sales
slip away. Next to top -tier goods were tables overflowing with
Mardi Gras-colored dyed pearls inexpensively priced for the
impulse buyer.
Odd, Isn’t It?
An interesting trending pattern that’s been gaining traction for
the last couple of seasons dominated at fashion-forward designers
booths. Both acclaimed haute jewelers and emerging designers
alike thrilled buyers with their exotic stones featured prominently
in their wares. There are a few reasons for such a daring move.
These oddities, known collectively as exotic gems—are underexploited stones that often provide greater margins for designers.
That frees up the manufacturer or artisan to concentrate on other
enticing aspects of the design process. More precious metal might
be used in a piece for greater heft and appeal. Traditionally
coveted accent stones are a great accompaniment to exotic
gemstones. If diamonds or emeralds are placed on a piece
featuring an unusual central stone, the customer immediately
understands that this item merits the value placed on it. And
importantly, there’s the story. Customers love a great story.
Retailers need a great story to begin the conversation with
customers and hold them spellbound until they have to have that
piece. Jewelry is all about the emotional connection. How better
to establish that bond than to enthrall a customer with the
backstory of a stones’ origin, recent discovery, or rarity.
Pearls (and other Gemstones) were Everywhere!
Gemstone and jewelry author Renée Newman says that the
increasing interest in rare and unusual gems prompted her to
create an “Exotic Gems Series” of books. The guides provide
detailed information about the gems and illustrate how designers
are using exotics to make distinctive jewelry that sets them apart
from the competition. For example, Exotic Gems, Volume 2, has
a chapter illustrating the wide variety of non-play-of-color opal
like blue opal, landscape opal, banded opal, and cat’s-eye opal.
Newman spoke about matrix opal and common opal at the
Sinkankas Opal Symposium co-sponsored by the Gemological
Society of San Diego and the GIA at the GIA in Carlsbad,
California on April 18, 2015.
Interpreting the Trends
Newman shares her opinion on this trend. “Each year I’ve
10
December 2015
noticed more designers embracing non-traditional stones in their
high-end collections. I think it’s because their customers want to
expand their jewelry wardrobe with new exotic gems.”
Retailers don’t need to abandon their current inventory to hop
on the odd-train of gemstone trending. But you may want to expand
your inventory base to provide a wider array of goods for your style
conscious customers. Also, offering your classic goods as a natural
complement to exotic gems is another way to finesse this
movement and expand your total sales.
Figure 1. How the Big Crunch works. [Credit: howstuffworks.com]
Outside Booth Selling Petrified Wood
The End of the Universe: Dependent of
Gooeyness?
By Mario De Leo Winkler,
Postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics at UC Riverside
The Big Rip, the Big Crunch, the Big Freeze, it pretty much
sounds like a list of 'big' Hollywood B-movies. Funny as they may
sound, these are some of the most fundamental theories for the
beginning and the ending of the Universe.
Viscosity, that sticky, gooey consistency of things, could
actually hold the key for astrophysics to determine how it will all
end billions of years into the future.
The Big Freeze, for example, considers that all available
material in the Universe used to form new stars will have been used
up; existing stars would eventually burn out. Being the main
producers of thermal energy, the cosmic eternity would then suffer
from the cold vastness of space. Black holes, those enigmatic
consumers of everything that crosses their path, will eventually
evaporate – through a process called Hawking (yes, Stephen
Hawking) radiation – as space becomes a cold living ground.
The Big Crunch, mostly discarded by modern physics,
suggests that the gravitational pull of the mass present in the
Universe will bring back everything together again; probably
imploding and creating a new Big Bang, and therefore a new
Universe into life (Figure 1). We currently know that the amount
of gravitational pull required for this to happen is not present in our
Universe.
Since the decade of the 1990s, astronomers discovered that the
Universe is infinitely expanding in an accelerated manner (Figure
2), so everything (including atoms) will eventually "rip apart",
giving the emerging Big Rip theory its curious name. This
undeniable accelerated expansion requires that a little over 68% of
all the ingredients that make the Universe is an exotic thing called
"dark energy". We know it permeates space, and that we need it to
exist in that percentage to create the observed acceleration. What
it is made of, is a matter of ongoing debate and one of the pillars of
modern cosmology. It could be underlying constant energy filling
space or energy varying with space and time.
It is possible, but not very likely, that viscosity could account
for all the acceleration that has been attributed to dark energy,"
said Desconzi in a news bulleting by Vanderbilt University . "It is
more likely that a significant fraction of the acceleration could be
due to this more prosaic cause. As a result, viscosity may act as an
important constraint on the properties of dark energy."
Figure 2. Expansion of the Universe since the Big Bang [Credit: NASA/WISE]
Previous equations and theories suggested that viscosity
would prevent the Universe from "ripping" apart. The new
formulation by Desconzi-Kephart-Scherrer provides a plausible
way for viscosity to allow structures to just pull apart after a
certain threshold is reached.
"In previous models with viscosity the Big Rip was not
possible," said Scherrer in the bulletin. "In this new model,
viscosity actually drives the Universe toward this extreme end
state."
Their model uses relativity, allowing for viscosity to work at
light speeds and very large amounts of compression and
expansion. For further analysis and proof, computer simulations
need to be run, bettered, studied and published to see if the
experiment (numerical simulations) and observations agree with
each other.
December 2015
11
An illustration of copper atoms being magnetized by buckyballs
Figure 3. Viscosity, when worked in a cosmological level at speeds close to light have
very interesting properties that can account for the ripping of the Universe.
Figure 4. The Big Rip scenario illustration.
Source: Huffington Post Science 07/02/2015
Non-Magnetic Metals Turned Magnetic
By Jonathan O'Callaghan
Of the 91 metals that we know to exist, only three are truly
magnetic at room temperature: iron, cobalt and nickel. This poses
something of a problem as we have to rely heavily on these
elements for anything for which we need magnetism, like MRI
scanners, computer memory storage and wind turbines.
But what if we could make more of these 91 metals magnetic?
That’s exactly what a team of scientists led by the University of
Leeds has been able to do, turning the non-magnetic materials
manganese and copper magnetic. Although the effect was fairly
weak, the research published in Nature Materials Science is hugely
promising. And they think that the method they used could be
applied to almost any metal.
“Being able to generate magnetism in materials that are not
naturally magnetic opens new paths to devices that use abundant
and hazardless elements, such as carbon and copper,” said co-lead
author Fatma Al Ma’Mari of the University of Leeds in a
statement.
“Future technologies, such as quantum computers, will
require a new breed of magnets with additional properties to
increase storage and processing capabilities. Our research is a step
toward creating such ‘magnetic metamaterials’ that can fulfil this
need.”
Almost all metals can be made to temporarily respond to
magnetism, albeit some extremely weakly, known as
paramagnetism and diamagnetism. But only iron, cobalt and
nickel can become permanent magnets, known as ferromagnetism.
A common example of a ferromagnet is a fridge magnet.
In the research, very thin layers of copper and manganese
were coated in a layer of organic molecules known as buckyballs,
spheres of 60 carbon atoms about one nanometer thick. Doing so
removed some electrons from the metals and allowed them to
overcome the Stoner Criterion – which essentially dictates why
some metals are ferromagnetic and some are not.
Coauthor Oscar Cespedes, also from the University of Leeds,
told IFLScience that the effect they were able to produce was very
small. The strength of the magnetic copper was about 10 times
weaker than nickel, and 30 times weaker than iron. Magnetic
manganese was about half that.
In addition, the ferromagnetic effect was lost over time as
oxidation took electrons from the metals, causing the magnetism
effect to disappear. In this regard, manganese fared better than
copper.
The effect was caused by the buckyballs mixing with the
atoms of the metals, so the researchers also found that making the
metal film more than a few millimeters thick prevented
magnetism from occurring, meaning that it can’t be scaled up to
practical applications just yet. But Cespedes said that it might be
possible to dissolve buckyballs or other molecules that can take
electrons, such as carbon nanotubes, in the metal by first
liquefying it. This could allow a much larger amount of
non-magnetic metal to be turned ferromagnetic.
And the applications are numerous. Cespedes in particular
notes that computer memory storage, while it “doesn’t capture the
imagination of curing cancer or medical imaging,” could benefit
hugely and help reduce humanity’s carbon footprint.
“The amount of information we need to store is humongous,”
he said. “In the last two years, we have stored as much
information as in the rest of our history. So we need to find a way
to store it in a very efficient way, by using materials that do not
harm the environment.”
The researchers will now try to enhance the effect, in the
hope that some of the numerous practical applications can be
fulfilled.
Source: iflscience.com Aug. 6, 2015
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Five Global Catastrophes That Could Happen
By Matthew Blackett
It is an awe-inspiring and terrifying sight, a volcano spewing
lava and millions of tons of ash and rock into a blackened sky.
Mexico’s “fire volcano”, Mount Colima, recently began erupting
… again, a reminder of the spectacularly destructive forces that can
be unleashed by nature.
Mount Colima volcano eruption, 2015.
But dramatic as online footage of this Mexican volcano is, the
eruption is a mere trifle compared to some of the little-known
natural disasters that have been predicted. From supervolcanoes to
towering megatsunamis, these catastrophic events could affect
millions – and occur sooner than you think.
1. Indonesia’s forgotten supervolcano
The threat posed to the world by the Yellowstone supervolcano in
the United States is well documented. Less well-known (or
acknowledged), however, is that it is just one of many posing a
catastrophic threat to the planet.
A waiting game: Lake Tabo Supervolcano. Flickr/SK Ding, CC BY
The Lake Toba supervolcano, on the Indonesian island of
Sumatra, is currently home to the largest volcanic lake on Earth,
formed 74,000 years ago when it last blew in the biggest eruption
for 25m years. It is estimated that around 2,800 cubic kilometres of
volcanic ash and lava were thrown into the atmosphere, 12% more
than was ejected by the last Yellowstone eruption of 2.2m years
ago.
And it may be about to erupt again. As with any
super-eruption, the vast quantities of ash and sulphur dioxide
produced can have a devastating effect on the global climate. But
a number of factors make the prospect of a Toba super-eruption
much more intimidating than one at Yellowstone.
Toba is located on the densely populated island of Sumatra,
home to over 50m vulnerable people, and is only 40km from the
Indian Ocean in which catastrophic tsunamis (of which we have
recent experience) would certainly be generated. Additionally, in
December 2015
recent months, reports of volcanic gases and heating of the ground
surface have led to suggestions that the sleeping giant may again
be waking up.
2. The Hilina Slump
Forget the widely-publicised megatsunami threat that has been
attributed to the potential collapse of the Cumbre Vieja volcano
on La Palma in the Canary Islands. A far greater danger is posed
by the possible collapse of the southern portion of Kilauea
Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Termed the Hilina Slump,
this could drop 12,000 cubic kilometres of rock into the Pacific
Ocean, generating a megatsunami that would propagate around
the Pacific Ocean and reach the western seaboard of North
America in a matter of hours, inundating coastal communities.
There is evidence that a similar collapse at nearby Mauna Loa
around 120,000 years ago generated a tsunami with a run-up
height of over 400m. Even as recently as 1975, movement of the
Hilina Slump generated a smaller, yet destructive tsunami that
reached California. Given that the slump is continually active and
moving, it might only take a jolt from an earthquake in the
tectonically active state to set in motion this catastrophic chain of
events.
3. The North Sea Tsunami
The North Sea may seem an unlikely place for a devastating
tsunami but climate change has led to concern that a submarine
landslide in the region might lead to just this.
There is a precedent. Scientists have suggested that over
6,000 years ago, a sharp sea-level rise, attributed to a changing
climate and a rapid melting of ice, added weight to the submarine
glacial deposits at the edge of the Norwegian continental shelf,
destabilizing them and causing a 300km long landslide. This
generated a tsunami that reached heights of up to 20 metres in the
Shetland Islands, ten on the Norwegian coast and six metres off
the northern and western coast of Scotland.
Should Earth experience such a rapidly warming climate
again, and experience the associated melting of the Greenland
and/or West Antarctic ice sheets, a similar event might well be
possible which, today, would affect the coastal populations of
Scotland and Norway (around 3m) – and perhaps even London.
4. The Cascadian ‘Big One’
At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just off the west coast of
North America and running from northern California to
Vancouver Island, is a subduction zone – a place where the
Pacific Ocean floor is being forced beneath the North American
landmass.
The rate of movement of the ocean floor here is currently just
40mm a year but the upper part of the system is currently stuck,
meaning that the North American plate is being compressed. At
some point, the pressure being built up has to be released and this
will be in the form of a massive earthquake, perhaps up to a
magnitude 9. This could cause subsidence of the coastal region of
up to 2m and a possible horizontal displacement of 30m.
Shortly after the intense shaking subsides, the riling coastal
community will be struck by a tsunami that could dwarf that of
the 2011 Japanese wave. Around 7m people live in this region,
from Vancouver, though Seattle, to Tacoma and Portland.
How feasible is it? Well scientists have calculated that in the
last 10,000 years, the region has suffered 41 large earthquakes,
occurring with an average interval of 244 years – the last was a
magnitude 9 and that was 315 years ago.
5. An extra-terrestrial threat
Perhaps the biggest threat to the modern world is posed by our
own star. Periodically, the sun emits a solar flare, an intense cloud
December 2015
of energetic photons and particles with the energy of millions of
hydrogen bombs exploding at once. Once released, these clouds
arrive at Earth’s upper atmosphere within a day or two and, in
many cases, most ordinary people on Earth would be none the
wiser.
Solar flare: The sun harbors a hidden danger NASA/SDO/AIA, CC BY
If intense enough, however, a solar storm could devastate
electrical systems both in orbit, for example, satellites, and on the
ground, as the energetic electrons cause a charge build-up.
One of the largest known events was in 1921, which knocked
out the US telegraph service; but scientists have calculated that
should a similar event happen in today’s technology-reliant society,
it could knock out many satellite systems, disabling global
communications, the internet and the global positioning system.
Chaos could ensue.
The intensity of solar flares varies on a roughly 11-year cycle
and fortunately, 2014 saw the most recent peak come and go
without significant impact. We can only hope that the same can be
said for the future.
Source: theconversation.com Oct. 1, 2015
Gems & Gemology Magazine Free!
Gems & Gemology is a quarterly scientific journal published
by the Gemological Institute of America. Each issue is devoted to
research on diamonds, gemstones, and pearls. Topics include
geographic sources, imitations and synthetics, treatments, and
identification techniques. Established in January 1934, Gems &
Gemology is geared toward jewelry professionals and gemologists.
The entire 81-year run, 1934 - 2015, 17,183 pages, is now
available for free as a single, searchable, 1.3-Gb PDF courtesy of
Joseph O. Gill. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.gemologyonline.com. (Just follow the links.) Because
of the size, it may download easier of you click on the “pdf” link
on that page, then “save target as,” and specify the documents
folder where you would like to keep it. It has been found that if you
download it and open it before saving it, then try to “save as,” it
can jam. Source: M. R. News, August 2015: Notes & News from
the Editors of the Mineralogical Record.
Birth Date of Earth’s Inner Core
By Robin Andrews
The inner core of our planet is notoriously difficult to
investigate, being that it is over 6,300 kilometers (roughly 4,000
miles) away from us. The deepest humanity has ever drilled into
the planet is a frankly minuscule 12 kilometers (7.5 miles).
Seismologists long ago worked out that the physical properties of
the core could be determined using the sound waves produced
during earthquakes, but its age is less certain, with estimates
ranging from 2 billion to a mere 0.5 billion years old. Today, a
team of researchers led by the University of Liverpool has
13
narrowed this down, revealing that the age of the inner core is
somewhere between 1 and 1.5 billion years old. The study is
published in Nature.
The inner core is our planet's deepest layer. By assessing the
types of sound waves that do or do not travel through the core,
scientists have worked out that it must be composed of iron and
nickel. Not only that, but seismologists are confident that this
sphere is slightly larger than Pluto, with a diameter of 2,440
kilometers (1,500 miles).
The interaction of the static inner core with the swirling outer
core generates the Earth’s magnetic field, which protects life from
dangerous levels of solar radiation. Knowing when the inner core
formed – in an event known as the “iron catastrophe” – could
enlighten scientists as to when this stable, protective magnetic
field began to be generated. If indeed the inner core formed
around 1 to 1.5 billion years ago as the authors suggest, then this
would coincide with the rise of simple multicellular life on Earth,
such as red algae, approximately 900 million years ago.
The magnetic field of the Earth changes frequently through
time, and this record is preserved in specific igneous (volcanic)
rocks as they cool down. This ancient magnetism – referred to by
scientists as palaeomagnetism – was recorded in the immense
oceanic crust as soon as it emerged and cooled from its respective
tectonic plate boundaries. Scientists in the early 20th century used
this magnetic record to prove that the planet’s continents used to
be joined together over 200 million years ago before breaking
apart.
The authors of today’s study used the same science of
palaeomagnetism to date the inner core. By painstakingly
analyzing ancient igneous rocks, they discovered that the Earth
experienced a sharp increase in the strength of its magnetic field
between 1 and 1.5 billion years ago. They suggest that this
occurred when the inner core began to “freeze out” and
differentiate from the molten, turbulent outer core.
The inner core’s formation meant that it took many of the
heavier, denser elements with it, removing them from the outer
core. Consequently, the outer core was left with the less-dense
elements, and the molten material began to rise and fall more
efficiently than before. This boosted the Earth’s capacity to
generate a magnetic field, leading to the spike detected by the
research team.
The team note that this is in sharp contrast to Mars, which
once had a strong magnetic field. Today, Mars is unprotected
against powerful solar radiation, its own magnetic field dying out
after half a billion years. The debate as to why exactly this
happened is still ongoing.
Source: iflscience.com October 8, 2015
14
Book Review
By Eric Hoffman
Jade (Third Edition)
By Fred Ward & Charlotte Ward
Gem Book Publishers, 2015, 64 pp, color illustrations
perfect paperback, 9 x 6 inches, $19.95
By now there are many excellent books on the fascinating
subject of jade. But it would be hard to find one as informative,
entertaining, and beautifully produced as this one.
Fred and Charlotte Ward have been praised for their Gem
Series of compact volumes exploring the history, lore, and
significance of diamonds, rubies and sapphires, emeralds, opals,
and pearls. Their jade volume first appeared in 1996, around the
time that Mr. Ward published in
National Geographic magazine
what is probably the finest
“popular” article on jade ever
written. This latest revised edition
contains much new information
and up-to-date photographs.
The story of jade is covered
from pre-history all the way up to
today’s top carvers. The confusing
story of how jade was named— it
is in fact two different stones— is
well explained. Of course China—
where jade has been revered for
millennia as the Stone of Heaven
— receives an early and thorough
discussion. The rebirth of jade
carving in China is also well covered.
But other worldwide jade cultures are not ignored. The ancient
Meso-American jade culture is thoroughly treated. The Olmec,
especially, were master jade carvers, and there is tantalizing
speculation about possible links with contemporaneous Chinese
jade working thousands of miles away.
Australian, Russian, and Maori (New Zealand) jade also
receive a chapter each, along with jade from USA and Canadian
sources. Canada is now the world’s largest jade supplier. Maori
jade is particularly fascinating as those native carvers had no access
at all to metal tools. Some of the finest and most creative jade
carving taking place today is produced by New Zealand carvers,
well illustrated in the book.
The Wards conclude with a few pages on buying and caring
for jade. Their warning that “confusion, deception, and fraud are
common” in the world of jade should be taken seriously.
This is a book you will enjoy reading and will keep for
reference, even if you already own an earlier edition. You will also
want to give copies to friends who love jades and jewelry.
Source: ASJRA Online Aug/Sept 2015
The Pink Event in New York City
Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA) Launches the
Global Forum Initiative On Natural Color Diamonds
The Pink Event coincided with the New York viewings of the
annual Argyle Pink Diamonds Signature Tender, and certainly at
a time where retailers and auction houses have seen unprecedented
success with natural pink diamonds. In response to the $10M pink
stones sold recently at auctions, retailers throughout the world have
been exploring a full palette of pink diamonds.
December 2015
NCDIA’s Pink Event featured a special two-part educational
series on the Rarity and Value of Natural Pink Diamonds and
Retailing Natural
Pink Diamonds.
At t e n d e e s ,
including the
i n d u s t r y’ s t o p
r e t a i l e r s ,
wholesalers and
designers learned
from a distinguished
panel of industry
sp ecialists and
viewed a dramatic
selection of loose
natural pink
diamonds and
jewelry from
NCDIA’s global
membership. The
rarity panel
represented perhaps
the most thorough
knowledge of pink
diamonds ever assembled Josephine Johnson (Argyle), Alan
Bronstein (Aurora Gems) and Wuyi Wang (GIA, Inc.). “From
history, through mining, science and practical gemology the group
had an unparalleled breadth of information,” stated Tom Gelb,
NCDIA Educational Director.
Moderators for the conference, Rob Bates of JCK and Gary
Roskin of ICA, did a splendid job by leading the panels to focus
on the latest relevant scientific updates and motivational tools for
wholesalers and retailers, and thus help consumers have less
resistance and more confidence in communicating how pink
diamonds of any size or shade could be an alternative choice to a
colorless diamond.” Alan Bronstein – Aurora Gems
“According to Argyle Pink Diamonds, the prices of tender
stones have appreciated by double digits over the past 10 years,
behaving more like fine art than regular diamonds. After the 2008
financial crisis, when the price of just about everything (including
white diamonds) plummeted, the Argyle tender enjoyed some of
its best prices ever, presumably because buyers were seeking hard
assets.” Josephine Johnson – Argyle Pink Diamonds
The Natural Color Diamond Association plans to host
international conferences in Australia, London, Antwerp, Israel
and Hong Kong to build the awareness on the Natural Color
Diamond category. The conferences will discuss a wide variety of
topics from the Market, Rarity and Value, Natural vs. Synthetic
and Retailing with color, we are confident this initiative will allow
NCDIA to add valuable information to the trade and retail
community to build consumer awareness.
About NCDIA
The Natural Color Diamond Association’s mission is to educate
and promote global awareness and desire for natural color
diamonds. Founded in 2003, NCDIA is a non-profit, membershipbased organization that includes some of the world's most
renowned rough diamond producers, diamond and jewelry
manufacturers, designers and retailers. NCDIA is a prominent
voice as an authority for natural color diamonds whose goal is to
stimulate the market with up-to-date, relevant information, and
provide members with opportunities to network, communicate and
interact in trading.
December 2015
Website Update: NYMC Doodles!
15
or Relate to Current NYC Events
By Mitch Portnoy
Starting in 1998, Google started changing their homepage with
Google Doodles. A Google Doodle is a special, temporary
alteration of the logo on Google’s homepage that is intended to
celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people. Since we now
have a website with a Home Page and, like Google, our logo
appears on it, I thought I would emulate Google with our very own
NYMC Doodles.
I quickly made the suggestion to our webmaster (Joe K) and
to the other NYMC officers; all thought it was a great idea for a
variety of reasons ranging from website marketing to just plain fun.
After modifying our 20-year old linear, monochromatic logo
with some eye-popping color and a more 3-D Subway Garnet, I
created about 50 NYMC Doodles. At the same time, Joe quickly
programmed an interface for me to be able to upload a doodle to
our Home Page anytime I wanted.
This now means on any given day, you may see a different
NYMC Doodle with the logo on the Home Page when you visit our
site! These images may be:
Seasonal
Let’s Go Mets!
New Year’s Eve
or Advertise Club Activities
NYMC Banquet
NYC Mineral & Gem Show
or Just be Whimsical
Autumn
Winter
or Advertise Meeting Lectures
NYMC Popsicles
NYMC Crop Circle
or Just be Artistic!
Fluorescence
Pink Tennessee Marble
or Commemorate Holidays
Copper Engraving
Halloween
July 4th
Rainbow
In addition, many of the doodles will be animated or have
some kind of interesting movement to them.
The fourteen doodles pictured here are only a taste of the 50
I already created and I am sure there will be at least another 50 by
the time you are reading this. I hope this encourages you to visit
our website frequently and enjoy the NYMC Doodle of that day!
If you have any ideas for a doodle or would even like to
design one yourself (within the required guidelines), please let me
know.
16
December 2015
Please Send in Your
Forget
To Pay Your Dues!
Name (s)
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Thin Sections G Mineral & Gem Bookplates G Jade
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with your check to:
December 2015
17
Date
Event
Location
December 9
Meeting at 6:45
“Man-Made Minerals & More”
January 13, 2016
Meeting at 6:45
January 17 (?)
Annual Benefit Sale (?)
February 10
Meeting at 6:45
March 9
Meeting at 6:45
April 13
Meeting at 6:45
May 11
Meeting at 6:45
Special Lecture: Zackry Wiegand (Artist) –
“Subtle Bodies - The Art of Light & Minerals”
June 8
Details to follow; Online catalog available!
Upper West Side, Manhattan
Details to Follow
Date
Event
Location
November 28-29
Morris Museum’s Annual
Rock and Mineral Weekend
Morris Museum, Morristown,
New Jersey
Sales, Exhibits, Lectures, etc.
March 5-6, 2016
April 8-10
NY/NJ Mineral, Gem &
Fossil Show
New Jersey Expo Center, Edison,
New Jersey
July 27- Aug 1
Albany, Oregon
October 21-23
Rochester, New York
November 12-13
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Editor & Archivist
Membership
Webmaster
Director
Director
Director
Mitchell Portnoy
Anna Schumate
Vivien Gornitz
Diane Beckman
Mitchell Portnoy
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Joseph Krabak
Alla Priceman
Richard Rossi
Sam Waldman
101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024
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Next Meeting: Wednesday, December 9, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Special Lecture: John Sanfaçon— “Man-Made Minerals & More”
FIRST CLASS
George F. Kunz
Founder